Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - Shazam! Star Zachary Levi... Opening Up Like Never Before

Episode Date: March 2, 2021

Zachary Levi (Shazam!, Chuck) goes deep into his mental health journey this week, opening up about his realization of just how ‘ungood’ he was despite the accomplishments and great things happening in his life. Zach goes on to share his newfound understanding for the dopamine he received by working and how during this pandy he’s had a more clear realization of just how much self worth he receives from his career. We also get into the super power of vulnerability, keeping perspective of your own mental health, and Zach’s take on his position in the DC Universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm drinking a hint water. And, you know, they're not even a sponsor. They don't give me money, but I like their water and they give me free water. And I deliciously eat it. I eat it deliciously. They should give you some money. Why? Because you are stocked up on this stuff.

That's true. Everybody comes over there. Can I have a hit water? I'm like, sure, man. You can have a hint water. As far as I know, you're the only distributor of hint water. I'm thirsty. Is that a hint?

Water? Uh-huh. Yeah, they're good. Thank you, Hint, for always giving me free water. I hope everybody had a glorious weekend, and I can't believe we're almost into March now, Ryan, and we're all waiting for the vaccine. We're all waiting for just to be over. We're trying to force it over. I had my moment last week, boy.

I didn't keep you listening to the podcast from last week. I listened to the intro, actually, and I was just like, oh, yeah, you were a bit not off my game. If anything, I was on my game because I was talking about my mental illness. You get frustrated. You get tired. You get just the anxiety kind of kicks in. And this has been a bit better this last weekend. I sort of got away.

Rob and I went to Joshua Tree. Nice. Rob, my guitarist for the band Sunspin. We drove up there and we got a place. and just this little place. It was like the Pioneer Motel, a cute little place, and we just hiked and went through a little western town

and just disconnected. And I'm telling you, just to get out of town did something for my mental health, just to get away from the norm, the redundancy of life that we just, it's every day you do the same thing. And if you just keep doing that, it's going to drive you crazy. Yeah.

My sister just went to Joshua Tree, too. Is it her first time there? I think so. but she has a dog she and her boyfriend have a dog and so they went to like an RV park so they're just like out in the desert just sort of out and so it looked nice

it does look nice I saw my first shining shining first shooting star I'd never seen a shooting star and I looked up in the sky at night of Josh Street for the very first night I go it's a shooting star Rob's like you've never seen a shooting so I'm like no I think if you see a shooting star you have to say it in that accent it's a shooting star

I loved it man It was a nice escape I need to I need to get out more I need to do things You know and we wear masks and shit So that was good Thank you guys for everything

By the way the Sunspin album is out Look CDs you can get this awesome CD At sunspin.com along with tons of awesome merch Like lunch boxes and stone coasters and hats Trucker hats I got my trucker hat here That was the dilemma this morning I was like Ryan should I wear the trucker had or not and you're like he goes like i don't care you know either way i don't care either way i'm

getting paid the same amount of money oh another thing if uh we sent merch out for sunspin and if you get the lunchbox if you got a lunch box um if you make a video of yourself opening the lunch box and make it uh the most original and posted on all post instagrams uh twitter and facebook rob and i will choose uh the person we thought was the most creative and we'll do a zoom with you so um when you get your lunchboxes make it creative and we'll probably do that contest in a week or so maybe a week or two but it's it's starting now so when you get that lunchbox the sunspin lunchbox which is available on sunspin.com so thank you everybody for coming out to stage it to this last week and it was a big show one of our biggest and uh if you've never been we do the last Saturday of every month so we did

Saturday 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. two shows we did Ryan we played uh we played like aha take on me Did you do acoustic style? Yeah, acoustic style. We did, what else do we do? Some talking heads. Home is where I want to be. We did a bunch of stuff, but a bunch of stuff from the album. And I urge you to go to sunspin.com and check out our album.

We're also available on iTunes right now, but you have to get it off your computer to get the downloads and all that jazz. So, yeah, the CD, it's fun to have something tangible that you can go, hey, look, I did this. I worked very hard for this. That's cool. I didn't know you made, like, uh. People still buy CDs. We've already sold like 100 CDs. You have vinyl too?

We're thinking about getting vinyl, more of a keepsake thing. But thanks again for tuning in. Last week was a really fun episode with Katie Cassidy, and we had Michael Cuddlets from The Walking Dead the week before. We've got a very special guest. He's been on the podcast a few times, but he always has so much information. And this time around, I feel like he was more open. There was just more of a vulnerability to Zach, if you could even say that because he's a

vulnerable down-to-earth man and uh and i consider him a real good friend and he just he's a he's a listener and i love having him on it gives me a chance to um breathe a little bit and see that there are people that are going through the same shit and him you know when he talks about the medications that he's on and what works for him and it's just so open you you don't see a lot of people do that and that's just uh it's just i really respect that and it helps a lot of the listeners that are listening and go, hey, this guy who's Shazam, he's, he's got problems too. And that's the whole point. So I urge you guys also, if you can, I always say it, but it really helps if you take a minute out to write a review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe on YouTube and Apple Podcasts,

wherever you listen. Please subscribe. And please invite many friends to listen. It's word of mouth that really gets the podcast growing and growing. And it's a very specific podcast that we talk about. You know, this is a, we talk about adversity and stress and life and it's really a candid conversation. So I don't think there are a lot like this. And that's a good and a bad thing. It's a good thing for, you know, for the world, I guess, and people listening, but also people are, you know, there's so many choices out there. So I'm glad that you're, I'm your choice, at least for now. So, uh, thank you for that. And where can they subscribe to the podcast, Ryan? Uh, on a YouTube.com slash inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. And then there's also follow.

ability I started that sentence and I didn't know how to end it at Inside of You Pod on the Twitters and at Inside of your podcast on Instagram and Facebook. Yes. I like that. I hope you continue to listen and join Patreon. My patron family is growing and growing and we do a lot of great things. In fact, I just bought if you've been a patron for a patron for a year, I made shirts for those top tiers who have been there since the inception of Patreon, which I didn't know what the hell was when I first started. But if you want to get closer to the podcast, a little closer to me, a little, you know, we have our barriers. But I talked to a lot of folks there. And it's a wonderful, wonderful platform. So go to patreon.com slash inside of you.

Patreon.com slash inside of you. I think that's what it is. It is. So without further ado, I think let's get inside a guy who's constantly working who is an inspiration to a lot of people, including myself. He got me into a great place, which cleared my head for a while and might have to go back. But let's get inside of my good buddy, Zach Levi. It's my point of view. 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. How deep is your love? How deep is harmonized. Oh, love, I really need to know. Because we're running down as fast as you can. That's not how it goes. We're running just as

you jumped into Tiffany. How did you do that? You're going, running just as fast as we can. No, no, no, no. What are the words? How deep is your love I go? How deep is your love? How deep is your love? How deep is your love? Love, I really need to know, because we're living in a world of fools, breaking us down. Is that Morena Baccaron in the back? I believe in you. Is that Marina? Is that Marina backwin over your left shoulder? It kind of does look like a Marina, but no, it's just a random piece of art in this house that I'm staying in.

Who's house are you in? I'm in a rental house at Oklahoma, in Oklahoma City. Because you're filming, what are you filming? Well, I was filming a movie called The Unbreakable Boy, and we finished that, and then I went home for the holidays for a couple of weeks. And then I'm coming back and basically with like 50% of the same crew were about to shoot this movie, American Underdog, which is the Kurt Warner football quarterback.

Right, you're Kurt Warner. Yeah, yeah. Have you been practicing? Oh, yeah. Can you throw a football? Can you throw a football? I can throw a football pretty well. I mean, I don't know that I throw it as good as Kurt Warner, but, you know. Jeez, Louise.

You know, when you throw that good, you play in the NFL. That's true. But, yeah, no, I've been doing a lot of, like, strength and conditioning training all through, like, once I got to Oklahoma, I started training and all through shooting the last film I was doing that. and also some QB training, even before I came to Oklahoma, I had a QB coach who's now here in Oklahoma with me and we're going to be running drills and, you know, just getting, just getting formed down and making sure not even just how to throw a football well

or, you know, what it means to be a quarterback, but specifically to emulate Kurt as best I can. And so, you know, he, my quarterback coach is kind of breaking down the various things that, you know, Kurt would do. The way he steps back in the pocket, the way he kind of bounces, the way, whatever it is. How you hold the ball, how you move with the ball, how your head's moving. Do you move your head at all? And unfortunately, I was even able to, in this little holiday break, I was able to,

I road trip, me and my girlfriend rode trip from L.A. to Phoenix. And I was able to go hang out with Kurt Warner and his family for a couple of days and just absorb them and their dynamic. You hung out with Kurt Warner for a few days? like at his house. Yeah, yeah. Isn't that bizarre? Is that like John Biner?

Remember John Biner? It was super bizarre. Wow. I've never really done. I, you know, like the Unbreakable Boy that I did prior to this is a, is kind of a biopic. In that it's about a real family and I was representing and I was playing the husband and father in this real family. But he and I looked very different in real life.

And, you know, the movie has a lot of. of it takes a lot of not a lot of but i mean it takes enough of our artistic liberty to kind of you know create it and weave it all together in the way that those things typically do and no one's gonna be i you know the the public scrutiny isn't looking at me and this other gentleman scott lauret his name nobody's being like wait a minute but everybody knows kurt warner so there's a whole other level of scrutiny that you're under when you're when you're representing being someone that is so well known and famous i think well look as as a as someone who you know i know sports i play football i could actually throw the ball i'm not you know i'm not bullshit and i could throw you know i have videos of

me throwing a ball i could throw a freaking football i mean i i i can i'm telling you obviously nobody's you know kurt warner level i mean you know tom brady but like curt warner what is interesting about if i don't know anything about football why would i go see a kurt warner what what is the catch what is a great question yeah i mean what's it what's it interesting what's a story like in a nutshell. Don't break it down, but just in a nutshell. The movie's not really about the football. The football is the packaging in that like it's it's an incredible rags to riches Cinderella story and the NFL is one of the most insane places they've ever tried to make that thing happen. But it's 25% football, 75% the real life journey of Kurt and Brenda

and their kids, their kids. And it's beautiful. I love it. It's got. It's got. it's so much heart and so much faith and it just is a very it's a very uplifting yeah uplifting humbling uh encouraging story we need that i think we need more of that all the time oh my god i need more of it i need more of it you know so that's that i love it buddy we were talking like a couple of months ago and i know we were both like struggling a little bit and we get into these struggles. I mean, we as in everyone listening, we all get into these modes of like, you know, we see the light at the end of the tunnel and all of a sudden it goes dark again. And you're like, what just happened? Man, I thought things are going well. My mind's not like, for instance, me,

uh, you know, I, I kind of tried some meds out just to, just to kind of balance me. Nothing major, but it, it's kind of messed with me a little bit. You know, it's like, uh, I told Ryan the day, my engineer, I'm like, I'm just dizzy, um, a little lightheaded, uh, you know, And my therapist seems to think it's like, you know, the antibiotics that I'm, antibiotics that I'm taking. And he goes, he thinks it's throwing it off and just to give it a few days. But talk about not sleeping. I have a little insomnia now.

I'm like, it's just like, and to try and get to a normal. And a lot of people will say, well, try nothing. Well, I've tried nothing. And now I'm trying a little something to see if this little something will help me feel normal because the normal that I feel I don't necessarily love and I'd like to feel some semblance of normal normalcy. So, you know, I know we were both struggling a little bit and I get into these areas and that's hence why I wanted to try something and go, hey, you know what? I want to try something, a little something and see if it gives me a little bit of help. And I know you've done that

too and I know you've been working on yourself, but what have you been doing? Because I know work is your therapy and it kind of detaches you or maybe connects you. So what do you do you do? Well, so, yeah, man, so many things to unpack. I know. I didn't know where to start. So I was like, no, no, no, it's perfect. What do you want to get into?

The way our conversations go, it's all going to tangent and get, eventually we'll cover everything. So, yeah. So, well, one of the things that, well, for people who are at home or in their car or wherever you're listening or watching, listening to or watching this podcast, this is now the third of the Michael and Zach Sessions. Number three was supposed to be in Texas where I was going to interview Michael

and then we were also going to do a live inside of you on a stage there. But the pandemic happened. And then pandemic happened and all that stuff. Two sold out shows in Austin gone. And it was... It's okay. We'll come back to it. We'll come back to it.

We'll do it. All in God's timing, man. We're okay. Yeah. But also, you know, an update and kind of an impetus or catalyst as to why we're, you know, jumping in. Because I really wanted, I like doing this in person. I mean, Zoom is amazing and what it's been able to provide us in this specific time is just incredible. But yeah, you know, I always like to be in real life face to face.

Would it help if I touch the screen? I just reach out Reach out and touch Oh, you got something on your forehead Somebody's hand Oh, sorry about that Your grandma I used to do that or your mom

They lick a finger to wipe something off Of your face Oh yeah and it's smelled Her finger smelled You smell their spit on you You're like, what? What are you doing? Your breath

It sounds like lips crusty lipstick They had even brushed their teeth They had like grandma Crumbs in her mouth From the theater Disgusting Anyway So one of the

The catalyst or, you know, to why we're having this number three right now is because prior to the pandemic, and I've shared all this stuff with you, Michael, but, you know, I was in the process of writing a book. I mean, I was in a much better place than where I was three years ago, as I've shared with you and the listeners. I went through a whole breakdown three and a half years, three and a halfish or so years ago. When I first moved out to Austin, and just didn't realize how much I didn't love myself or feel any self-worth at all. And I did so much work and went to incredible therapy, a place of Privy Swiss as we've talked about and with those amazing people.

Yeah. And Shazam comes out of that and Marvel's Mrs. Amazel and all of these things just felt like, okay, I've done the work and I've healed of this thing and now look at the fruit of that labor and I'm good. I'm good now. And I didn't realize just how ungood I was. I didn't realize just how little healing I had done. And by the way, it's an incredible, I think, example and testament to God's love. Even a little bit of work that we do can bring about

such incredible growth and such incredible things. But I still had so much more to do. And I didn't realize it until the pandemic hit when I fell apart. I crumbled. And when it first started, I was actually okay and I felt optimistic. And then once the country started ripping apart of the scenes and there was just all of this vitriol and all like we're so and as an empath like not only

did I feel all that and feel like what is like I lost hope like what is the point of even working toward all these things we're working toward if everybody's going to hate each other on the other side of this and and also me just you know all the negative loop that we find ourselves you know these lies that stay in our head and we can't get out of our head like you're worthless or you're dumb or you're not going to get this done or you're ugly or whatever, all of the things. And this was, I was in the process of writing a book because Harper Collins had hit me up

and they were like, listen, we really want to, we want you to write a book about your mental health journey, specifically this one that I've talked about many times before, you know, kind of the going away to this healing therapy retreat and then becoming a superhero on the other. end of that like you know this um a really powerful uh part of what my you know very long mental health journey it has been and i was in the thick of that and i was literally trying to write this book to help people to talk about loving yourself like i've done many times on my social media

and i couldn't i literally couldn't do it i could not without feeling like i was a complete fraud and hypocrite, I couldn't write a book about loving yourself when I knew still deep down I didn't love myself. And I was so messed up this pandemic because I just went right back to feeling like a complete failure. Do you remember the messages that you and I kind of left back and forth? I just remember this voice. And I'll tear up the fucking thinking about it. I was like, hey, buddy, it's Rosie, just calling you, seeing how you're doing. And you're like, hey, buddy. you know and just the feeling like you could tell that you were like I'm really trying here and I'm sitting in my truck right now and I have that message and it just was like it broke my

heart and I was like it broke my heart but at the same time I you know it was almost in a weird way nice to hear somebody that can maybe relate to how you're feeling so I didn't want you to feel like that but I felt like you know I immediately FaceTimed you and I go hey let's talk and we talked for a long time and we weren't you know we weren't expecting to but It just was like, I know you have, you've really stayed away from a lot of medication for a long time and this and that. And we were kind of talking about, hey, look, we got to try something. And I remember, you know, you're right. You went to this place.

And then I went to that place because I respect you so much and love you so much that I was like, you know, I'm going to do this for me. I remember it. You said, what's your biggest investment? What's your biggest, the most important thing to you? I go, I don't know, the most expensive things. Probably my house, I guess. You go, no. I don't know, my van isn't worth much.

You're like, no, buddy, you. you're the most important with your that that shit is nothing without you if you're not healthy who gives a fuck health as well and that struck a chord man and i was off to connecticut and just trying to better myself and so then afterwards we i feel better and we're like oh i go you're right this really helped and then like you were in good place and all of a sudden we find ourselves back into this lull and then it's like well what just happened i thought we fixed ourselves but then we realize it's a never-ending battle it's a never-ending like you have to work on yourself and so and here we are.

Well, I think, yeah, I think it's never ending, but I used to be much more downtrodden by that. Like, I hate the idea of, you know, forever pain, forever inconvenience, forever, whatever. But I think that similar to, you know, if you, I've used the dental analogy before with mental health, but if you never learned to brush and floss your teeth, or you learn but you never did it your whole life.

You're going to end up with all manner of problems in your teeth. And then at that point, you're going to have to do some major, major, major work to get it all fixed again. And then beyond that, you're going to have to then continue to do the things that you were supposed to do in the beginning and had you done those daily,

those little practices. Brush your teeth, floss your teeth. If you brush your teeth, floss your teeth every day, which is, you know, five minutes, 10 minutes if you're slow, then you don't have to have root canals. If mentally and emotionally, which by the way, this is everybody,

because no one has been taught really good mental and emotional flossing and brushing techniques unless you grow up with therapists, and even that's a weird thing, because therapists being parents, like I have friends whose parents are therapists, and they're screwed up too. Oh, yeah.

There's all those things. So, yes, it is a never-ending. our mental and emotional well-being journeys are never-ending, but they don't have to be never-ending traumas. It's just a never-ending maintenance. And I think that where I found myself and where you found yourself and where I think a lot of, I don't think I know a lot of people find themselves, is how do you even,

Where do you start? Well, yeah, how do you, what's, what kickstarts you into, into wanting to care for yourself if your serotonin and dopamine levels are so low that a depression, clinical depression even, that's what I've definitely suffered from throughout my life. I didn't realize that I did. Again, we always think that everyone just kind of feels the way that we feel. It's normal. We don't realize that some people don't get into the lows that some of us can get into.

And when I first went to Connecticut, well, when I went to Connecticut, to private, the, am I allowed to say their name on here, by the way? Yeah. Oh, okay. You went to a place that helped you. No, I know. I just didn't know. I went to McDonald's and had a burger, you know? What are they going to sue me?

So I was taking Lexapro, which is an SSRI, an antidepressant. and I and maybe it was just because I didn't take it long enough or I didn't take the right dosage of it but it never really felt like it helped me at all so right because everybody's brain chemistry is different so some people it helps amazingly some people it doesn't yeah I think I had tried that in the past and did yeah and and there are so many different SSRIs antidepressants because of that because your particular brain chemistry might respond better to prozac like which is what I'm about to get into which is something I've been taking for the last few months now, which has been a game changer for me.

And I'll get into that. But with Alexa Pro, it didn't really feel like anything was working. And I got some really good wisdom and love and healing at Privet. And I really was that, you know, we all kind of have that thing. And it's like, well, I don't want to have to take a pill for the rest of my life. I don't want to have to do that. Well, guess what? Sometimes you do.

And that's okay. Sometimes we are all born. I mean, there are people that are born missing an arm. Right. What if they said, well, I don't want to have to use a prosthetic for the rest of my life. Well, they're just cutting off their nose despite their face. Right. You have a thing to help you, to reach that thing, to grab that thing.

But you're not going to use it because you don't want to have to be dependent on it. And by the way, I've never been born without an arm. And I don't know what that journey is like. But it would seem to me that in that same way, we need to be approaching. Again, physical well-being should be equatable to mental and emotional well-being. It should be. We just, we have so many stigmas around it. We don't want to feel like we're the person that has to take a drug, a pill every day even.

Right. You feel shame. Like, why can't I be normal? Oh, my God. Why can I? Am I not strong enough? Am I too weak? And then that was a stigma that's been around since the beginning of all this shit.

And it's bullshit. And everybody listening is bullshit. It's all bullshit. Whatever works for you. Obviously, if cocaine works for you, you don't do that. That's a bad thing. But if you have something that's controlled, that works for your. brain chemistry and you go through it with your therapist and you feel comfortable and it makes

you feel like normal. Like you can get things done. You're not going into these deep, you know, dark areas. And so that's, I agree with you wholeheartedly. And the analogy with the, not flossing your teeth, this makes perfect sense. I mean, it really does. Because one day you wake up and you're like, oh my God, my whole mouth. They need to rip out my whole, all my teeth. Well, that's the exact same thing. If you wait to your our age, you're 40, 40. I'm 48. Fuck me in the butt or anywhere. It looked great. Well, I don't, oh, thank you.

I'll tell you what. My daddy always told me it's better to feel good than to look. It's better to look good than to feel good. Let me tell you. You don't remember that guy? You look absolutely marvelous. Fernando. My daddy always told me, Fernando, don't be a schnook.

It's not how you feel. It's how you look. Okay? That's Billy Crystal, isn't it? Billy Crystal. Yeah, it's marvelous, baby. Inside of you is brought to you by Better Help. Stop right now. If you're freaking out, if you're stressed about the way the world is now or just life in general, anxiety, depression, all this stuff. If you deal with stuff like I do and everybody deals with, everybody deals with, you deserve help. You deserve to get better help, better help online counseling. They are a sponsor for a long time and they're serious about helping people. And so am I. And that's why I think it's a good.

good match. 2020 was pretty interesting. So let's do a mental health check-in. Why don't we? How are you really? Ask yourself. And what do you need right now? Therapy can help.

And, you know, people ask, what is therapy exactly? And they sum it up pretty good. It's really whatever you want it to be. That's therapy. You know, you get tools to help with motivation, depression, anxiety, battling your temper, stress, dealing with insecurity and relationships or at work. Whatever you need, it's not just, I think people associate it with, you know, this big sort of, what's the word, Ryan?

It's just this stigma of, you know, oh, people that need therapy are, no, that's absolutely not true. I always say people who don't go to therapy are, you know what I'm saying? It's time to stop being ashamed of normal human struggles and start feeling better because you deserve to be happy. Better help is a customized online therapy that offers video, phone, and even, live chat sessions with your therapist so you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to and it's much more affordable than in-person therapy and trust me i live in hollywood it's expensive so better help is way cheaper and you can start communicating with your therapist within 48 hours join the millions of people who are seeing what therapy is really about it may or may not be for you

but it is certainly worth looking into because you are the greatest asset this podcast is sponsored by better help and inside of you listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash inside. That's betterhelp.com slash inside. Better help. Inside of you is brought to you by athletic greens. Guys, I don't know what to do here with you guys because you know, you wake up in the morning and you do what I do. You probably eat a bowl of cereal or you eat bacon and eggs and you don't get any important crap going into your body. You don't get the good stuff in your body. We neglect our bodies, and it's so easy to please them,

especially with a product like athletic greens. I mean, this is something, a powder that you put into a glass of water, a 10 ounce glass of water. You mix it up in seconds. It's got 75 vitamins, minerals, and whole food sourced ingredients, including a multivitamin, multi-mineral, probiotic, green. superfood blend and more, and they all work together to fill the nutritional gaps in your diet. You increase your energy, better focus, aids with digestion, and supports a healthy immune

system, all without having to take multiple products. This is, again, something I talk about. If you're getting, whether you're young or not, but I'm getting older, I need to start doing healthy things. Ryan, do you find yourself just doing the same crap every day? Oh, especially now, for sure. And what are you eating in the morning? I mean, I do eggs and some toast. And you think, oh, eggs are kind of healthy? Yeah.

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So go back to you because I know you're saying ProZek, and by the way, I want to commend you for, being very, not only straightforward, but also it's very brave for people, especially in our industry, to go, oh, I'm on this or I'm, like people think, oh, but that shows a weakness. Like, I've had surgeries. I deal with pain. Oh, he's a liability. No, I'm just being honest with the world and I mean, I do what I can. And I just think it helps. And again, whatever, whenever you talk about this, as I'm sure you'll say, and we've talked about, it's not like pros that will work for everybody. Prozate might work for you. No. No. So, anyway, go ahead.

In fact, you know, I actually, well, I share it because I think it's important, as you know, I just think, I think vulnerability is important. And transparency. Superpower, I think it helps, it feels awkward and it's scary to be that real, but it is only ever brought positive things into mind and other people's lives. Me too. So I don't want to hide and not talk about the struggles that I have, particularly since we have the platform that we do. And I think that the more we can normalize,

and we have platforms to really spread that normalization out there. So that's super helpful. The only thing that I've ever questioned talking about the brand or type of pharmaceutical is something that actually I learned, was it when Chris? Because they'll give you, bank you as a spokesperson, like, oh, he says this. No, it's not even that. It was something I heard Kristen Bell say, and it was either on your podcast or it was on um yeah on armfare well she said she wouldn't name

the product because she doesn't want other people it was a you know it was on mine where she said yeah she doesn't want other people to think it that right that doesn't work for them just because it worked for her so she didn't say so that's exactly what i was alluding to and i think that's the only hesitancy i even have in talking what i talking about what i'm taking but i'm going to talk about it uh because we're also giving people the um the the uh clarity in our conversation right now that just because it works for me doesn't mean it works for you.

And by the way, I'm not even sure it works for me perfectly right now. You know, there's things that work and there's things that don't work. When I, well, first, tracking back a little bit. So, again, I was, even though I was in like really, really, really,

you know, sad shape and feeling super defeated and lost. and incapable and, you know, all of the not good things. I tried, I still was like, I don't want to, I don't want to have to take a pill if I don't have to. I'm going to do all of the other things and things that I've done before, but I was really like leaning into it.

I was praying, meditating daily, 20 minutes a day, 20 minutes a day, sometimes 40 minutes. minutes a day, 20 in the morning and 20 at night. There's a great app, by the way, my friend turned me on to, if anybody's looking to get into meditation, one giant mind. Write that down, right? They walk you through. I thought you're going to say J-Date. Isn't that for Jews?

Like myself? I'm a Jew. One giant, man. You're not Jew. So it was meditating, was working out every day, was eating the cleanest. of clean, wasn't drinking any booze. And it still was not pulling me out of the deaths. And it was terrifying.

And I was like, well, I can't, if this is, if I'm doing all these things and it doesn't really feel like I'm having consistent, marked difference in the uptick of my life, and I guess that's the sign that I do need to try something. and as it turned out had people like yourself or others who were saying you know, Zach, maybe it's time that you really give an antidepressant a shot

and one of the things that really put me over the edge not to plug somebody else's podcast but I think it's definitely worth mentioning and something you'd really enjoy listening to it's a podcast called The Hilarious World of Depression and it's, I can't remember the name of the host but he's great and he interviews just basically a bunch of comedians.

The first couple of seasons are just mainly comedians and comic writers, but then he brings in other people from entertainment and stuff. I want to get on there. We should both get on there. We definitely should. At some point, I would love to do it. But anyway, the point is that he interviews all these people

and all of them. You know, it's without fail. It's like, yeah, I didn't want to have to take the pill. I didn't want to have to, we all have this kick. We want to kick back on this thing. And they all say, change my life, change my life, change my life, change my life, change my life. I couldn't get out of bed and then I was all of a sudden like I'm okay. And I think part of it is none of us want to admit how we need help.

Well, no, no, no, yes. But also I think that people don't want to admit the idea that we are just how helpless we are to our body's biochemistry. I think we all think that we are in control of that. And it's actually a very liberating concept to acknowledge and to say

oh, no, no, I don't have, like all of my thoughts are not my thoughts. My thoughts are a whole bunch of things. Sometimes that's me thinking. A lot of times that is this negative interject, this negative feedback loop. And so much of that stuff directly comes from your level of dopamine

or serotonin or whatever the effinephrodin or I don't know what epinephrine epinephrine epinephrine I guess yeah my thoughts are I don't want a lot of these thoughts yeah totally 100%. But because your body and your mind are in a depressed state because of dopamine serotonin lacking in your system you are infinitely more prone to stay subject to those thoughts as soon as you can take some antidepressants or whatever it is that you need to take for you in your particular mental and emotional well-being journey, you can find a key.

And here's the other thing. It shouldn't shock anybody that we all have mental and emotional issues. Look at the world. Look at the world that was before us and all of the woes and all the crazy. And look at where we're at now. Look at these little devils that are in our pockets

that, you know, like if you watch the social dilemma, the documentary on Netflix, which is, like, so scary to think about, like, you're not even in charge of your own social media. You're being constantly marketed to, and we all know it. We talk, our phone is in. Dude, I swear to God, you're absolutely right. I was sitting with my friend Joe outside, and we're sitting there talking. I don't remember exactly what was said, and I'm just going to say for random.

I was like, it's like, yeah, it's like, you know, when I got this taco, a Taco Bell last week, I'm not kidding. 10 seconds later he just looked at his phone goes dude you're not going to believe this it popped up an ad for Taco Bell I'm not on my phone so they are pretty much listening to you

you cannot trust any it's a sad it's a sad it's terrifying so and kids are growing up with us more and more and more and more we're constantly just distracted distracted from working on ourselves the longer we get distracted the longer it takes for us to actually come to emotional and mental wellness

and maturity and these things are the greatest, they are the, I say, I've said this for years, it's the, it is the single greatest Swiss Army knife in the history of mankind and also the deepest narcissist pool. We, we, you can get lost in it, black mirror. I'm good, I'm good, they love me, they love me, I'm great, I need that, I need this. Yeah, that's true. And so, none of us should feel ashamed that we struggle with stress, anxiety, and depression and bipolar, whatever, all of the things, our brains are being fractured every single day by our politicians by our food by our pharma by our social media by all of it by so much of our content yes but by the way Zach it's

not just that the most important thing is that we have all those external things going on because you could also have the choice to use those things and the choice to acknowledge things and be but what I'm going to say is that there are some choices look I don't think you can control much but you can control your determination to fight for a better life, to feel better. I mean, you could always have control of trying. But what I was going to say is that if someone has schizophrenia, someone has manic depressive, someone has bipolar, this is science. These are doctors who have diagnosed these people, and if they get diagnosed by enough

doctors, then it is real. It's science. So their mind works in a different way. Their brain chemistry, just the channels that are going around, they're not like mine or yours and my brain is not like you so ultimately it's asinine to think that everybody has a normal brain and we all can improve our brain by just exercise like Zach said that he tried that his food his meditation all these things so if you've done everything and your therapist goes I really think that this slow dose of something might it's worth a shot I mean that's why I'm

diving into it I don't want to be all met it up I don't want to I go look if this is going to fuck with my creativity if this is going to fuck with blah blah I mean there are side effects Like he said, well, you're not going to want to have sex as much. I'm like, well, it's a pandemic. I don't really have sex anyway. But, you know, so ultimately it's like there's so many variables. But look, into your world now where you decided, okay, I'm good. Because I remember you did not want to.

Like, I don't want to try a prozic. I don't want to do this. I don't know. I don't know. And I remember having that conversation with you going, dude, if nothing's working and you've tried everything, why don't you try something? Just if you don't like it, get off it. you know just be on monitor it talk to your friends be i mean i think part of the difficulty in

this is that you're asking almost without fail you're always asking a depressed person what they should do a depressed person doesn't know what to do they're scared of doing almost anything because you're you don't want to make it worse right so it's it's it's a really weird oxymoron right it's it's this paradox like of course the depressed person is not thinking clearly or as rationally or as logically as they ought to be, as somebody who's been on Prozac now for a couple of months and has my serotonin levels stabilized, that makes a complete, it's so much more rational. Also, because I've now done it and I've seen the benefits of it. And so obviously that all plays into it too. But, but, you know,

you and others who I talked to who had also gone through, you know, seasons of their life where they were on it for a while. And they said, listen, it, it, it was a life, it was a lifesaver, it was a life changer. It was a, it, it helped me, you know, my, my therapist, um, used a great analogy. When, you know, when I talked about like, I don't want to be on this stuff for the rest of my life. He goes, well, maybe you will and maybe you won't. It doesn't, I don't know, but they're, you know, like I said, they're, uh, they're, uh, they're, plenty of people like diabetes diabetics have to take a shot well now they actually have these cool

little machines and things are kind of automatic but you know i mean i remember having diabetic buddies when i was growing up as like every single time they ate they had to prick their finger and check their uh that should be a sitcom by the way diabetic buddies it's like three overweight guys or underway i have friends who are really skinny with diabetes but you know they get it and they live they live together and they have to check yeah stupid idea you know so that that that could be the rest your life, perhaps. But also, if you're in a room and you're in the dark, and the only way to turn the light on is to drag a stool over to underneath the light

so you have something to stand on so you can reach the light, then look at the antidepressants or whatever drugs that you might need to take is that stool. Yeah. And just get up there and get that light on. I love that. got the light on then assess then look at what's going on you know then you can leave the light on you can leave the light on hey let me ask you what was it like the first month or two when you did do prozac and were you like talking about getting off it and saying this isn't working this

isn't working where there many times you almost got off it oh man there was yeah so so um yeah I mean well libido is definitely something that is uh side of fact that is very clear in all of the, you know, like, this may cause this, that and the other. Yeah. So there's, you know, there's, there's, there's some of that. But I don't lose a bone.

I don't lose the boner. I, I just don't feel like using the boner. Yeah. It's like, hey, go down, dude. I don't know what you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I just don't feel like doing it. That's a very good way to, that's a very good way to summarize it. Bone be gone. But, no. But that is whatever. You can deal with that shit. The thing that made me almost get off of it. And I'm glad I didn't,

and I'm glad my therapist encouraged me to push through. And this is a good disclaimer for anybody who is thinking about getting on antidepressants. Just keep this in mind. In my case, so I started on, you know, a small, small milligram dose, five milligrams or something of Prozac for the first couple of,

because you got to, you know, you want to ease into these things. It's very delicate to all this biochemistry, and you want to make sure that you're putting the right stuff in, and it's not having adverse effects. So five milligrams, golden, but it didn't really feel like it was lifting me up that much. 10, still not much. So then I was able to go up to 20,

and when I did for like the first couple days I was okay and then for about a week I had gnarly anxiety. Now I was already suffering from anxiety. I suffer from anxiety without that. So that was one of the things I'm trying to get away from. And it ended up amplifying my anxiety in a way that was like,

I can't do this. Especially what you're working. You're doing the underdog. You're doing all these other things. You're preparing for these movies. You can't have horrible anxiety. No, no, no. So what happens?

You fight through that anxiety? Yeah, I just fought through it. And I talked to this closest around me just to be like, hey, just know if I'm like, you know, needing to go take a walk or I'm just, you know, breathing or it looks like I'm just like, you know, resting or whatever. Like I'm just trying to breathe through this.

up and know that, and know that this is not real. It is biochemistry making something feel real. And that's what I'm talking about. Like we are not humble enough when it comes to how strong and powerful our minds are. Like we think these depressive thoughts because we're down in this depressive state and then we believe these depressive thoughts as truth. They're not. how people, you know, how often we sit around

and we're in a bummed out mood and think about like all the shit that we did wrong in our life and we beat ourselves up about it. Ruminating. Ruminating. Or we think about all that stupid thing I did with that person and they must think I'm an idiot. All of those projections.

When that person might not have even clocked what you did. Or cares. And even if they did, they haven't thought about you in 20 years or whatever. But to you, it is real and clear as the day. Yeah. But it's not because our biochemistry literally makes us feel in such a way that it galvanizes that. It like solidifies it as some kind of fact and it's a fucking lie. It's not true.

So what, yeah, go ahead. So I knew that was going on. My therapist is like you've got to remind yourself this is just a physical reaction. There is nothing to be anxious about because if you're feeling anxiety, then you'll apply that anxiety onto things in your life and then you'll feel that anxiety about those things. As opposed to just feeling it, you know, it's very, I think it's a very Buddhist kind of thing to, Allow yourself to just feel whatever it is your feeling. This is very, in meditation, it's the same thing.

Feel what you're feeling. Become bedfellows with your pain, with your fear, with your anxiety, with your depression. Like I'll, you know, embrace them. But what was the first thing you felt in a good way, like in terms of like, oh, it's working? Or did it take you time to sort of, as my therapist would say, hey, tell anxiety, he could sit in the backseat, but he's not driving and then shut the fuck up. I know it's there. This is what's happening. but that's not that's just that's not real he gets sit in the back seat he's there we know he's

there but keep driving and or was there a moment where you're like you woke up or day two and you're like my anxiety's kind of gone i don't feel low i mean honestly like once all the anxiety kind of leveled even while the anxiety was going on i could still feel the depression lessening so that was i could feel not happier necessarily but i could i didn't feel as unhappy or yeah or like depressed it was just the anxiety that was still so once so once that then leveled off and things kind of stabilized um i don't feel the anxiety thank god beautiful uh and my therapist was right and just you know ride that out and don't take you know because i was like do i take somebody to counteract that and he goes don't take any more things just write it out it sucks but you're going to be okay and um

You know, it's strange. It's like, you know, because I guess you just assume or because people for so many years say that they're happy pills or whatever, antidepressants. They're not really happy pills. And it's not like, you know, fly in and just like, oh, my God, like some drug drug drug or whatever. You're just, you're actually, as somebody who struggles with the depression,

as I do, I think this is just what people feel like normally. Right. It's normalcy. The happy pill is really, I'd like, here comes my normal pill. I can feel kind of like maybe you. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's true. That's true. That's kind of where it's at now. And that allows me to now not be run by this monkey brain that's down in the depressive state that's thinking lies are real.

And instead, you know, like getting all of that, like at a therapist once talked about like, you know, perspective and why we get so strung out, it's like putting your hand in front of your face. If you put your hand right in front of your face, you actually can't see the form of your hand. You know it's your hand,

but you know, it's all kind of double-visioned and, you know, there's no real clear lines. And until you can pull your hand away far enough from your face, then you can go, oh, that's a hand, I can see all the fingers, I can see all of the lines in it, I can, but you have no perspective here. There's nothing here. And this is where we're at in our messed up biochemistry.

We have no, it's everything just like, how many people you think just did that with, with me? How many people watching just put their hand near their face and went along with them, go, oh my God, I did. I was lost in Zach's words and his hand. Inside of you is brought to you by True Underdog Podcast, raised in a trailer park with no clear path to success, kicked out of high school multiple times,

faced with becoming a father in his teens, Jason Waller is the definition of a true underdog. After hearing the words, no, or you can't too many times, he unleashed the power within to start three successful companies with his most recent venture, Power Home Solar, skyrocketing on a path to becoming a billion-dollar enterprise. Join us as Waller, a four-time entrepreneur of the year winner, shares motivational tips and inspiring stories

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That's the biggest thing. We always talk about this. But it's funny because, you know, I'm 48 years old, man. And you're 32, almost 30. All right. Go to hell. You're young. But you're more mature than I am.

But no matter what, I think the older you get, you don't want to do as much. You don't want to pay as many bills. You don't want to. go out there's just a lot of things that you want to save time with groceries auto insurance homeowners insurance all these things that just sounds so adult you want somebody that's respected that everybody knows but at the same time you want to be able to do one payment and those are called bundling policies it's so easy honestly with guyco and uh you know to have one payment and that's all you have to deal with as opposed to

three different companies, to me, that's what's important in my life. I'll tell you that right now. Guyco makes it easy to bundle your homeowners or renters insurance along with your auto policy. Go to guyco.com. All you do is get a quote. It's so simple. And see how much you could save. It's guycoe easy. Visit guyco.com today. That's guyco.com. So that's been, you know, a huge benefit and continuing to do the other things as well. And staying healthy and staying strong and mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, you know, 20, was brutal for everybody. Well, yeah, unless you're Jeff Bezos. It wasn't very brutal for him.

But yeah, by and large, we all got smacked around really, really, really hard and some of us even lost our lives. And we're not out of the woods yet. There's still going to be more COVID flying around. We've got the vaccines, which is great, and more and more of those will be handed out. And, you know, depending on how well or efficiently we do that, maybe by summertime, maybe we have things opening to allow. that like feel real and by Q3 it's really real and by Q4 by holidays of next year we've got hurt immunity or we're close to it or whatever but we still have a lot of this to go through and a lot of you know political bullshit that we're all going to be waiting through

together and trying to stay a hopeful like if you want to be a productive person you have to have some kind of hope you have to have some kind of faith and something resolve faith something where you know that it's worth it you know and when i'm at my highs i everything's worth it but when i'm in my lows i'm like what's the point of life yeah isn't that something what are we doing you know and that's where i i know that i can swing and whether i'm bipolar or not i i don't know i've never been diagnosed with that but but bipolar's a massive big catch-all category and there's all a manner of like there's bipolar one and two and three and three is just like a bunch of stuff that we're not really sure what it is but maybe it is bipolar but we don't

know and you know what I'm happiest Zach I think when it's one in the morning and I'm on eBay looking at old lunch boxes vintage lunch boxes I just got this Empire Strikes back one there's something to be said about just kind of it's not healthy it's not healthy but you know my excuse is I'm not going to be some douchebag I'm not going to go buy a $300,000 you know, bens or whatever I'm just buying a 30 or $80 fucking Empire lunchbox that's it I'm not spending I'm not spending like crazy here I might spend a few hundred bucks here and there I'm not I'm not going nuts but I want some lunchboxes there's something bad about that though there's something there's something there's something

there that I'm what is it you're looking at me like well you're you're been there because you think that this is going to make you happier like these certain things are going to make you happy but it's ultimately that's it's that's retail therapy I know uh and um and external validation on some level uh why I'm the only one that cares about I think that it's healthy and good to treat yourself occasionally absolutely I think that that's part of self love is to say like I'm worth this thing whatever this thing is only we can gauge when we are buying something because we're worth it buying something because we want to be worth it

and that's where I think a lot of us struggle and stumble we're not we don't give it enough thought before purchasing and then because once you purchase you get the dopamine rush and you get the fun and you get the thing and it ah you get it but that goes away quick. Really? By the way, that was one of the things, one of the things that I've definitely...

I want to return it. Kind of, I think, recognized for the first time in my career, in my life, not working... Well, you and I have talked about this before, but when I, when I, I didn't realize how much, you know, I derived my worth from work.

before this pandemic. I knew that I did on some level. But I don't know. I always kind of felt like in the past, if I wasn't working, it was my fault. So I could beat myself up and there was, and that's why I was upset with myself. This was the first time I wasn't working

and it wasn't because I hadn't booked a job or whatever. It's because this virus is floating around the world. Everything gets shut down. So I should be very kind to myself and be like, okay, well, okay, you know, we'll hunker down, we'll figure this out, and we'll get back to work on stuff once we get back. But I didn't. Instead, I was still feeling worthless.

And I was like, why, why can't I just be with me? I'm not being Zach on a set. If I'm not being Zach with my cast and crew and taking care of people and loving people, entertaining people there, and making a thing that's going to go entertain people outside of here for years to come. Why can't I feel like I'm worth anything if I'm not, doing some version of that or you know working and and producing and creating why can't i because i still didn't love myself enough i still yeah that's that's what it's working on valuing myself enough to

be okay if i don't do another tv show or another movie or another play or another song or whatever if i had to switch careers right now and go do something else am i going to be happy with myself am i going to love myself i'm trying i'm trying i'm listening to this and i'm going you know my therapist is always Sandy you know Sandy but Sandy's always like you're you're worth it you're and I'm like yeah I know I know I know I know yeah I'm totally worth it yeah I know I know I'm down I know but but I'm not it's not it's not settling in it's not yeah and it's just such a weird dynamic where it's like I don't hate myself I don't look in the mirror and go you're a terrible fucking awful person but I do think I definitely can't say I love myself I cannot

not say that honest to God gun to my head somebody said do you love yourself i cannot say yes that's for sure but um and those there are moments right you go in these phases where it's like you're just such an asshole dude you're fucking and then you're like you know what that was a really good thing you did and you didn't do it because the cameras were rolling or you didn't do it because you wanted people to like you you did it because you really have a heart and there are ups and downs of that sort of validation and like validating yourself for certain reasons and um so i'm that that's all a balancing act and that's part of the whole therapy and all this look enough about me this is about you but so you could be my therapist just to just to add to that a little bit and also

circle back on what I what I was going to then get into when I was talking about how I kind of recognized that I was driving so much my work my worth from my work another thing that I recognized was dopamine and this is through you know by the way this also like 40 years of life and, you know, knowing things now that they didn't know before so I can put, I can not connect dots that didn't make any sense. But dopamine is a really fascinating drug in our bodies. And it's really, um, a, a reward drug. So, uh, serotonin, um, is a, I mean, by the way, I'm not even, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't quote me on any of this stuff but we're just actors talking about things yeah but well serotonin

seems to be more of a a love drug like kind of a more steady feel of things are okay right a piece or that kind of stuff whereas dopamine is the excitement dopamine is the little shot little and we When we get them playing video games, this is why people become addicted to video games. This is why people become addicted to certain drugs that give them dopamine. But it's also why people get addicted to work. Because every single time you achieve a little goal,

you get a little shot of dopamine in your body. It's your body, your evolutionarily, our bodies were designed to help us propel forward, literally. You get little shots of dopamine throughout your day. When you're playing a video game, Every single time you, you know, you're playing a shooter game, every time you kill a guy or you level up or you get the new gear or you, a new map opens up. Like they design apps. They design games.

They design them specifically for these reasons so that you have all these little dopamine checkpoints. Like a lunchbox. Same thing. Same thing. There's a little shot of dopamine there. It's a small shot, but it's dopamine. Go ahead. That's what I was saying.

You get that little shit because you've, you've checked, got that, got that empire strikes back. And then it goes down. Got it. done yeah and then it goes down and you got to do another one you get another shot right of it so what I didn't realize

was I had basically stripped myself of all of my little dopamine shots because I have been grateful and very blessed to have been working as consistently as I've worked in my career but that

going for the most part from job to job you know there were definitely seasons of life that were drier and those were also as it turns out shocker more depressed states in me because I didn't have enough hobbies or other things that I was accomplishing I was always wanting to go to work and when I was at work I got all the dopamine that I needed because you show up to work by the way getting up this is why there's scientists and like there's this uh I think

there's a Navy SEAL has this great commencement speech, and he talks about tucking in or making your bed in the morning. And the reason why you make your bed in the morning is because it's the first shot of dopamine you get. It's an accomplishment. You accomplish making your bed. It's a little, and they don't need to be big accomplishments. I do it.

They need to be little accomplishments. Do you do it? Make your bed. You make your bed? Go to the bathroom, brush your teeth, take the shower, do, shape, whatever you, all those little things. And we don't think they are, but they actually are little teeny accomplishments. Wow.

When you go to work as an actor, you show up, hopefully you're on time. Accomplishment. Say hi. Now you've got some community there. You're seeing your set PA or your base camp or whatever. Cool. The director hugged you. Sure.

When you could do that. Now you're rehearsing. The rehearsal process is an accomplishment. You're going through. You're figuring out where you're going to stand. You're figuring out your lines if you don't already know them. And you're working it out with the other actors and the director. And that's one big.

And then your takes, and then you do a taking, it's great, and then it's a dopamine. It goes on. And then you go home, you're exhausted, and you start the whole day over. Exactly. And when you don't work, you don't have those days. You don't have all that dopamine. So what do you do? Well, I think you're doing things that are helpful in that regard.

You are busying yourself with your podcast, with writing your music, but performing your music, with whatever it is, your hobbies. I struggle with hobbies because I don't prioritize them. I think that in my warped thinking for so long in my life, It's like, well, those are kind of a waste of time. I need to focus on the work stuff. I spent too much time screwing around and playing video games and doing whatever. And I don't have time for that.

I need to go do this stuff. So for me, personally, I need to invest in me. I need to invest in me time. I need to, like I got a ukulele. I'm learning how to play ukulele. That's been releasing. Let's write a song together. Let's, my next album, let's do a song.

Why don't we do a duet? Well, or I'm not kidding. Like, I have a duet on this album. I'm so, you're right. All these hobbies, like I'm thinking, the music, wait a minute. I've never been more happy, never been happier, never been, felt like a rush dopamine. Every time I get a note back and here's the song and we have notes and then I have to go re-record this. And even though I'm not the, you know, I haven't been a musician in my life, I love music.

And I finally said, just because I'm, I don't sing like Adam Lambert, I can fucking make music. And now you can't get me away from writing music. I love it. I don't care if I become a rock star. I'm not there to be a rock star. I want to make music and hopefully people like it and the patrons do and, you know, friends do. And I love it most importantly for the first time of my life.

So maybe that is a breakthrough. Inadvertently, I didn't realize that music would be such an important factor in my life. And that is a hobby. And so maybe you're right. Take the ukulele up. Let's write a song together. Let's go back and forth with lyrics. Let's put something down and go, hey, that's another accomplishment.

Let's just do more things without, oh, you got to also not spread yourself too thin. because you do a lot of stuff as well. Yeah, and look, and everybody's got to be able to gauge that for themselves. And, you know, are you overworking yourself? Are you over stimulating yourself? Are you not enough? You know, I, that's everybody's got from bandwidth. I know for me, I found myself in this pandemic without work and not knowing how to enjoy my own life.

And I was so blessed, man. I was on my ranch in Texas on the river. I had family and friends that could come and stay with me and all quarantine together. I mean, we had a beautiful situation. and yet I was still so despondent. And one of the things that I gleaned from that was, oh, because I have put, not just to derive all of my worth from my work, but part of the reason why I do that is because I get my dopamine

almost exclusively from work. And if I don't have enough to do for work, and I'm telling myself, well, this is a waste of time over here to go and, you know, get better on my dirt bike or mountain bike or get up and run every day or whatever, you know, learn out of tap dance, learn a new language, whatever it is. And also it's difficult when you are in a depressive state to believe in yourself, so that makes it harder.

So before you get to that deep, deep down depressive state, or even if you're in right now, recognize that you telling yourself you can't do it is a lie. You telling yourself that you're not worthy of doing it is a lie. Go and do it. Fake it until you make it because you will start giving yourself dopamine by accomplishing. Go accomplish.

accomplishing almost anything will give you little shots of that dopamine and it will help pull you out of the depression this is a wonderful conversation to me this is i you know i i hope people enjoyed as much as i do i hope everybody listens i to me honestly back to like what it matters to me this has been dopamine for me this has been this has been like this is i've learned so much and i always learn from you and I know I'm sort of the you know the little kid kind of just jumping in and making a joke here and there and I kind of like to do that because sometimes you know I like to do that but sometimes it's insecurity or it's or it's like oh my God he's talking about exactly what I'm getting too serious here oh farts farts have done it again farts have cut into the

serious talk and I'm sure people say Zach was about to say something really important and he cut him off with a singing the bee gees or some shit we're going to get into I think called shit talking with Zach Levi. This is rapid fire. This is just fast. If you could do it fast. This is all my patrons get to ask these questions. If you want to join Patreon, patreon.com slash inside of you.

I'll message you. Sophie, M. What are three positive things that you have done during lockdown? Three positive things I've done during lockdown. Prozac. Eating, right, working out

and meeting a lovely girl. We didn't even get into that. We're going to get, all right, hang on. We might get into that, but we might not. I don't want to get personal. I will. We have been personal. Gen D.

Gen D. How has your recent social media hiatus been beneficial to your mental health? How has your recent social media virus? Tremendously. I've ventured back on a little bit. but I find myself almost wanting to disappear again. It's just incredible how addictive Instagram specifically is.

Just the endless scroll, the endless scroll, the endless scroll, the endless scroll, the endless scroll, you're just constantly. I mean, and I know it, like, you're doing it and you know you're doing it, and you still don't stop. Yeah. Because you think, by the way, this is also dopamine. Because every single time you come across one of those memes, that's a golden, golden meme, and like, ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, I won. I won. See, I was supposed to keep scrolling. I found the nugget. And then instead of just ending there, you go, I bet I'll find another one. It's me with popcorn.

It might as well be a one-arm bandit slot machine. It's just, it's me with popcorn. I'm like, I've had enough. I'm bloated. I'm farting. And I need to stop. And I'm like, no, I have half a bowl. It's delicious. Himalayan salt. It's not the worst thing in the world. It's non-dairy butter. I'm going to finish this fucking ball. I'll even give a few more kernels to my dogs. Dopamine. Steph A, what's something you like to see WB do, Warner Brothers do,

that you think would make the DCEU, the D.C. universe, better. Bring back Lex Lothar, what? Um, say what? They did bring back Lex Lutzer. No, I know. Did they bring back the Lex Lerlitzer? No, that's the question she asked.

Oh, is that what you go by now, the Lex Leklith? No, I don't go by that. Some people do. screen rant other publications um a young gene hackman i always referred to you as by the way he was my favorite he was my favorite lex luther ball time so good he was so good but you don't know really and that's a tough question isn't it uh yeah i don't know i you know it's like and and this isn't just trying to i'm not like i'm not definitely not evading or dodging or whatever um or paying lip service when when i say i'm legit just grateful

that I get to be Shazam and get to be in that world. And as a comic book fan and video game player and lover of all nerdy pop culture, like I have all kinds of different ideas of what I think would be fun or cool. But look, I think that from what I've gathered, from my bosses and the conversations that I've had, I think that Warner Brothers and DC are

making steps to do exactly that at making it better. I think that, you know, there was unfortunately just some missteps or misfires or whatever that came in the initial universe building that just didn't pan out and Marvels did. They took, you know, I think Feige and those guys were smart enough to take John Fabro and Robert Downey Jr.'s template in the original. Iron Man and eventually just kind of put that vibe over all of their titles. They realized

that that's what people want. And they were right. It's just, it's funny enough and with just enough action and explosiveness and death, but not so much that like kids are freaking out and parents can take their kids in the movie. Like, they struck the perfect chord. And Fabro

and Downey did that first and then they used that template and they did it. DC and Zach Snyder wanted to go the other direction and be like let's make this dark let's do it you know let's do this this darker deal and i think for batman that works i think that it uh was a difficult thing to apply to all of the dc characters because of their different personalities and stuff and um uh and ultimately you know they were trying to figure out their tone and zach had to leave justice league and joss came in

and now there's all that drama and all these things that people are talking about and i don't I was all well before my time, and I can't weigh in on any of it. But what I can say is that now, because the universe build didn't work, I think, in the way that everyone wanted it to, they have pivoted, and now they're allowing it to be this multiple universe,

DC universe, the multiverse, which now, which is interesting because Marvel is now kind of doing that thing as well, but it allows you to make all the movies, you want and they can be connected or not connected or whatever and actually i think that's smarter this this has been awesome the last thing i want to say really quick i mean you know is i'm really happy about the girlfriend so why don't we see how that goes and in maybe five months or four months or whatever down the road this year you come back and if that's still happening it happened i wish you the best i i you know you don't normally have girlfriends i normally don't either it's not because we're not well you know uh you know

we're troubled um we're no we're we're we're i think we're innately good people like everyone but we we're just trying to be better and once we like ourselves more and love ourselves then we can love and that's ultimately the bottom line of of us or i can speak for myself but yeah and i think part of that is you know um when you struggle loving yourself then you really struggle allowing another person to love you because you don't think you're deserving of it and you don't even know that you're doing that. Yeah, you don't, I don't even know. I don't even know that that's what's happening. Like you're saying, like, you're not loving someone. You're like, well, this person's so sweet to me and so kind to me. And so friendly, we get along and we don't

fight and all these things and things and things. Why don't I love this person? Well, maybe because you don't love yourself. But how do you do that then? Is that really the reason? Or is it? So it's just this battle that you have in your head. And it's just like a bunch of lies, like you said. and it's like get to the bottom of it and that's i think what we're doing that's why we're here you know amen thanks jack i uh i love you thanks for being here again i love it too man and i love everybody out there listening and watching and uh we'll see you soon you know you edit these episodes ryan uh-huh do you i mean you have to listen you have to really listen to them is this something did you get something out of this one i did what did you notice about

Zach that was different this time. Zach, well, I haven't listened to the old ones, but he is one of them, every now and again, you get somebody who's just an open book and then we'll just say whatever is on his mind and whatever he's going through. And so he just, he let it all out. He talked openly about, like, his being on, you know, medication for depression, which he was hesitant about. Yeah.

And, yeah, so, I mean, whatever you're willing. to discuss he is open to it yeah that's true you know i uh sometimes have guests who just don't want to open up as much or they have specific things they want me to cut out or you know there's there's reasons you know people don't want their whole lives out in the open and i i get the you want to be private but uh when those people that have a voice that have recognition a name celebrity status open up they just don't realize i mean we don't realize how much power that is that's power that's using your celebrity to help people now that is beyond to me an Oscar or winning awards and all that shit because what you're doing is you're actually

helping people and and I think Zach does that so and he deserves everything he is getting in terms of success he's a great guy and I love to see him fight in the good fight you know what I mean as as Zach told you or Zach was talking about all the medications, things that he, things that he does, things that we are not professionals. We're not licensed professionals. We just talk about our problems. And so if you do need help, you know, where to get it. There's better help, which can help you with online counselors. And there's also emergency hotlines of something serious. And, you know, if you're an emergency, don't listen to the podcast. Get going with your stuff. You know what I mean? So once again, if you want to join

Patreon. The Patreon family is Patreon.com slash inside of you. I write a message to you after you join. Also sunspin.com. You can get these. Our lovely CDs out. They are autographed or unsigned, but they're shirts and lunchboxes and a bunch of stuff. Go to sunspin.com. Sweet trucker hats. Look at that trucker hat.

I love it. I wear it all the time. And what else? How could they subscribe to the podcast again? YouTube.com slash Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. At Inside of You pod on Twitter. to be a podcast on Instagram and Facebook. Yeah, I'm going to start like a contest or something.

I started it for the sunspin. Like if you get 10 people to go to the stage that haven't gone before to see us, we'll give you a Zoom. So maybe there's something where all my listeners out there can, you know, they can get 10 new listeners or something and then they could get something, some free merch or free something. There's got to be a way to do that. Give them an incentive, if you will.

You know what I mean? Would you guys do that? tweet me let me know if that's a good idea uh and also you could send messages which i don't check regularly but i do check and i look at your emails your messages and i appreciate them the letters are so heartfelt uh hello at inside of you dot com hello at inside of you podcast dot com that's it hello at inside of you podcast dot com yeah sunspin dot com for all the merch and inside of you store you can go to inside of you store online and get all these great shirts and um tumbled and mugs and autograph there's also lex luther pictures and small the lunchboxes and shit so there's a lot of fun

stuff there and a big shout out to all my patrons again couldn't do it without you love what a great community we have um a great community we have it's it really is uh it's it's splendid i do these youtube lives where it's just for patrons so it's a private link and i just play songs and talk back and forth with them and they're messaging me and um we have an occasional a big zoom for the top tiers every couple months i'll do a big zoom thing um you know so it's it's hard too because there's so many people leaving messages that you can't you can't respond to everybody you just can't i mean i would spend every day all day on that and i do respond but uh sometimes it takes me a minute and i'm not a fast reader as my agent would tell you can you read the script can you just

read it and see if you like it. I don't think I'm going to like it. But have you read it? No. But if you just read it, read the fucking script. All right, let's read the patrons. Okay, here we go. Any voice in particular like to... How about, um... How about Freddy Kruger?

Nancy. Nancy D. See, that would take too long, though. Mary. Leah. Uh, I can just read them. Tricia F. Sarah V. Little Lisa.

Ukeko, Jill E, Brian H. Lauren G, Nico P. Robin, S. Jerry W. Robert B. Jason W. Stephen J. Kristen K. Not to be confused with. Kristen Crook. Amelia O. Allison L. Jess J. Lucas M. We got Raj C. Does Amanda listen to your girlfriend listen to the podcast ever? No. He doesn't. Joshua D. Emily S. C.J.P. Samantha. M. Jennifer N. Jackie P. Stacey L. Carly H. J. N. S. Jamal F. Janelle B. Carrie B. tab of the 272 not to be confused with tab of the 273 Ashley Ryan Kimberly Kimberly E. It's Kimberly Ewing I believe. Mike E. Marissa

M. N. N. N is in Nancy. It's Narello. El Don Supremo, which is Dan. Jack S. One of my faves. Ramira. Beth B. Santiago M. Sarah F. Chad W. L. N. P. R. A. A. Misha P. Misha. C. Madie S. Kendrick F. Ashley E. Shannon D. Matt W. Belinda. N. Kevin V. James R. Chris H. Ogeborn.

Osbeorn. I love Osbourn. I want to see Osbeorn. But it looks like a Viking. I don't get on Zoom. Sorry. I'm too cool. Osbeon.

He's busy launching flaming arrows at boats. We're probably way wrong. He's like, I have no time for this. I'm a Viking. By the way, his name's probably, we're probably effing it up completely. It's probably like, Asbejorn or Abajorn. And there's an O with a line through it, too. Amy C, Dave H, Samantha S, Spider-Man.

Chase, Sheila, G, Ray H, Alyssa, C, Tab of the T, Misha H, Deb A, Tom, N, Suzanne B, Henry S, KDF, Lillianna A, Michelle K, hi, Michelle, Marquez, he wants to. Marcos, he wants to. Hannah B, Michael S, Talia M, Luke H, John S, Andrew T, Christy, S, S, Christy, Claire M, Liz J, Laura B, Laura L, Laura L, Chad B, Rochelle E, Nathan E, Brandl D, Taylor K, Neil A, Marion E, Meg, K, Janelle P, Dan, N, Jennifer J, Wayne, M. Those are them. You know, I noticed a lot more names. Also, thank you for buying all the Sunspin merch. So when Rob and I were boxing them up, I see all these names. We want to actually do something with the people who bought lunch boxes to make a video of them opening their lunchbox. Boxes and make it as creative as they can and the most creative will get like a five-minute Zoom or something with us to as a token of our appreciation and you got a post on all socials. So if you get a lunchbox and you get it, hopefully you get in time for this contest because I think it's happening right now, but I think you'll have time.

This has been a real treat. Thanks, guys, so much. We've got great shows coming up. Please stay tuned. If you're here for Zach Levi, stay tuned for other guests. I think you're going to learn something. I learn something every day from you, from the guest, from Ryan, from my home in the Hollywood Hills. Mutual Rose Boswell.

Oh, yeah, Casa de Rosen schnaz. I'm Michael. This is Ryan. We'll get a little wave to the camera. Thank you all for allowing me to be inside of you today. Thanks. Much love to you. I just died in your arms.

tonight it must have been something you said just tired in your arms tonight all right hi I'm joe's all see high host of the stacking benjamin's podcast today we're going to talk about what if you came across $50,000 what would you do put it into a tax advantage retirement account the mortgage that's what we do make a down payment on a home something nice buying a vehicle a separate bucket for this addition that we're adding $50,000, I'll buy a new podcast partner. You'll buy new friends. And we're done.

Thanks for playing, everybody. We're out of here. Stacky Benjamin's, follow and listen on your favorite platform.