Mayim Bialik's Breakdown - Seth Green: Always Performing

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

Seth Green (Family Guy, Robot Chicken, Austin Powers, Changeland), Mayim’s on-screen boyfriend from their Facts of Life days, stops by to discuss growing up in the entertainment industry alongside Mayim, his experiences with therapy and psychedelics, and why he has always strived to be a good human. He considers why his trajectory turned out so positive compared to other fellow child actors, why he thinks he may have undiagnosed ADHD, and how the condition has helped him in his life. Seth opens up about his experimentation with psychedelics in conjunction with mindfulness and research, how it taught him to detach from his ego and express his emotions, and the possible dangers of hallucinogens. He shares how therapy taught him to forgive his parents, why the search for the right therapist can be so frustrating, and the things that are currently on his self-improvement list. Seth discusses his relationship with marijuana and Mayim breaks down how cannabis can help with sleep-related issues. Watch Seth Green's film, CHANGELAND, on Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/Changeland-Seth-Green/dp/B07QYYLDGP BialikBreakdown.com YouTube.com/mayimbialik Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I got to really be comfortable with the idea that your parents are just people that had a kid. And so there's no magic. There's no great architecture that you need to analyze. It's as simple as you're going to figure out how to love and forgive this person who's just a person that gave birth to you. It's my biolics breakdown. She's going to break it down for you because you know she knows a thing or two. And now she's going to break down. Hi, I'm I'm Biolic and welcome to my breakdown.

This is the place where we break things down, so you don't have to. We're going to be speaking to an industry veteran today, someone who's pretty much been performing in one way or another for his entire life. But first, my favorite person in the industry, Jonathan Cohen. Hello, my name. I'm not even in the industry. You're also my favorite industry adjacent person. We're going to be speaking to someone that actually you didn't know that I knew until we were at the Super Bowl before COVID. And who was there but Seth Green. And Seth Green.

He was so excited to see you. Well, so Seth Green has appeared in a million shows. Like, name a show. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. He's been in it. Graze Anatomy? Yes. That 70s show.

Yes. Mad TV. Entourage. All the things. Also, he is the voice of Chris Griffin. Chris Griffin on Family Guy. Yeah, he is. He's also.

like one of the people behind Robot Chicken, if you've ever seen Robot Chicken. So you may know him from those such things. What I know him from is he and I were in the facts of life. Right. He and I were in the Facts of Life, which was a show, which we will talk about. And he and I played sort of,

well, he was like trying to be my boyfriend. I was 12. He's not that much older than me. That's what we're recasting him at for now. 13 or 14. But he's one of those people who's kind of always been working. He also has a tremendously good and positive attitude about his career.

Also, Robot Chicken is Adult Swim's highest rated original programming. It is also won three Emmys for short format animation, also numerous annies. Also a best directing win for Seth himself. You have a memory of a story that he told about auditioning for Family Guy. I don't remember where I've heard this story, but when they were trying to find the Chris Griffin character, they auditioned all these people and everyone sounded the exact same. They're all surfer dudes. And he came in with a totally different take. And if you've heard this show, you're like, it's so unexpected. And you can tell he is a very unexpected individual. That's really cool. We're going to talk about all the things. We're going to talk about his and my sort of childhood career together. We're going to talk about how he was an extremely confident five-year-old, which is just also fascinating. And he's going to share with us kind of a little bit of his journey how mind-altering substances have contributed. to that. Where he is now, it's a really fun conversation. It's a pleasure to welcome Seth Green. Break it down. For those that don't know, Seth and I were in the final episode

of the show Facts of Life was actually filmed as a pilot, which means a sort of tryout show to see if Facts of Life would have a spinoff. And Facts of Life, Jonathan, did they have Facts of Life in Canada? They had it. Describe to the people. what Facts of Life was? I don't fully remember. Does anyone know what it was about? Yeah, it was actually a show about an all-girls University in Peakskill, New York. Lisa Welchell was in it.

Charlotte Ray was like the sort of headmistress. And then there was essentially five. Well, what's the life was actually a spinoff of different strokes, which was a show about a rich white man who adopted two black kids. kids and made their, yeah, and made their life great. So their housekeeper was Charlotte Ray, a character called Mrs. Garrett, who left the show to become the headmistress at an all-girls university. And then that, that pilot starred like Molly Ringwald and, you know, all of the girls that would go on to be the stars. Right. Molly Ringwald, who was let go from Facts of Life

because she did not make appropriate eye contact. I believe she grew up with a blind parent, as we talked about. And so she, did you not know that? I've never heard that. Yeah, and we had Molly on here. What was you talking about? I know, it's crazy. Anyway, but yes, so Facts of Life was this show, and it centered around kind of four types of females, which looking back with sort of the lens of today's understanding of gender and sexuality, it's fascinating because there was like, the tough girl, who everybody was like, I think she's a lesbian.

And then there was like the perky chubby girl, right? And then there was like, the black girl, because like that was a thing. And she actually, I mean, she kind of stole the show. She was very beloved. And then Lisa Welchell was like the snobby. Christian kind of conservative type. And so Seth and I were brought on as sort of this new class. Yeah, the idea was that they were going to integrate the school and make it co-ed.

And this was the big shift. So we were the first crop of students. And I think they only agreed to go co-ed because the school was getting shut down. And I showed up in drag trying to get into this all-girls school. So what's also funny is that, Juliette Lewis was part of this cast with us. I wasn't that much younger than the other girls, but I looked a lot younger,

and the kind of constant joke was like, I was waiting for the boob fairy. Didn't you have, like, tennis falls or something? That's right. I had socks. I had two pairs of socks in my shirt. And I remember I was, I think I was 12 at the time, and I remember feeling very self-conscious

about being flat-chested because, like, I was very, very thin. I was just like very bony. And it was like a mixed blessing to be on television, drawing attention to how flat chested I was. And your character was like super in love with me, right? Like that was the, he was always. I'm pretty sure that my character was on any girl that was there.

Like my character was just captain flirtatious. We had special scenes together for sure. Now. But I was. I definitely tried to, that's the best part about that show is, It was peak multi-camera. Yes. So all the jokes, it felt like, I don't know,

I felt like I've been training for that my entire life. Yeah, well, and in a way, you kind of have, I had just started acting. I was extremely new. I wasn't even a year in the business when I was on Facts of Life with you. I auditioned for beaches during filming. Like one day after work,

I went and auditioned my very first audition for beaches, which I got when I was 12. So we were somewhere in, you know, the 11 to 12 range. but you had been acting, you know, for a handful of years. Tell us a little bit about, you started at seven, is that right? I did, yeah. Also, you were freaking, I mean, you're adorable now, but you were a freaking adorable kid, and you were a bright, bright, jingy, as we say.

That's true. You were a super carrot top. You were absolutely, I mean, adorable, very charming. You had a lot of personality. But talk about you're from near Philadelphia, or are you from Philly? Yeah, I grew up in West Philadelphia. Born and raised. Sorry. Couldn't help it. I didn't know. No, it's the truth. And then I started going to New York when I was seven for auditions and was lucky enough to book the first thing I went on.

I went on a commercial audition, but I was so hungry for it. Like, by the time I was five, I was really confident that I wanted to be an actor. Okay. Tell us what those first five years of your life were like. I mean, like, the first five years of my life, I was like playing with plastic fruit. and dolls and trying not to throw sand in people's faces. I've had a five-year-old. He has never been confident about anything. No, I don't think my five-year-olds couldn't even speak in full sentences. Well, I do recognize that it was kind of a rare perspective to have. And especially when I was a teenager and it was time for all of my friends to go to college

and sort of announce what they wanted to do as a career. The fact that I had already been working in my chosen career for almost 10 years, it was just a different thing. I was just always attracted to entertainment and storytelling and imagination. And I always found myself impersonating any of the animated characters or trying to do accents. I was just such a mimic. So anything that was on TV, I would repeat it, whether it was a commercial or a song or a character voice. I just repeated it.

And then I saw that that was an entertaining thing. So I would do those things for people and try and get that reaction. I really like that. Being able to make people feel something. I like that. And then my mom was the art teacher or art director at a summer camp. The oldest kids in the summer camp wanted to put on a talent show. So like the 13 or 14 year olds were putting on a talent show.

I was like five or six. And I was just a staff brand. So I was at the camp. all day but didn't have anything to do. So I was always in everybody's business and so precocious that it was it was charming, I guess, to these teenagers and they involved me in their talent show. So each of the acts had a time on stage, but they wanted an interstitial to tie the whole thing together. So one of the kids asked me if I'd ever seen Star Trek and I was like, sure, sure, I've seen that. He goes, okay, you're the captain. I'm Chekhov. We're here. We're like shoot out. We say beam us up. They're

going to beam us up and then we're going to travel around all these different galaxies and explore the acts from each of the galaxies. That's the framework. And I was like, perfect. I got it. So I don't even know if my mom knew that I was supposed to do it, but the night of the talent show, I'm on stage with these guys. And we're doing the thing with the shootout.

Say my line and get to the chair and start on the way to through the galaxy. Let's see what this galaxy has to offer. He's like, Captain, Captain. Captain, Captain, off to the North Park. We see there as an incredible group of talented dancers. Should we explore them? And I'm like, yes, let's settle down there. But remember not to touch anything.

We can't interfere. You know. And then at the end of the show, everybody, we took our bows. And I was like, I think I fucking liked this. I think I got that. I don't know. This feels really good. And then the next year, my mom's at a different summer camp.

And I'm after the drama group to let me in the play. They're producing, you're a good man, Charlie Brown. Oh, yes. And I think I'm six. Six and everyone. And they won't let me do it. They're like, no, you're a child. And this is our time.

We're here. We're the campers. And so that whole semester goes through. It's two months, like a one month term and then a second month term. I was there for the whole time since my mom was teaching. And the second month, they're putting on hello, darling. And I was just up their ass too much. They're like, fine, fine, we'll give you a line at the end of the play.

you can come in right before the final review. You'll run on stage shouting, she's here, she's here. You'll hit the stage, you'll look to everyone and excitedly say, Dolly's here. The curtain will open, we'll do the final review. And I'm like, got it. So that's it. Trained for a month, watching everybody go through the motions,

the practice, the rehearsals, the makeup, the curtains, all of the stuff, everything. They're like getting people seated, handed out programs. lights go down, the curtain opens, we put on the show. I'm waiting the whole time. I see everybody like, great, great, that went great, good, the turnover, great, here's what you need. I'm trying to assist everybody backstage.

And you know me, I'm so small anyway. It's six years old. I was probably like two foot. And then at the end of the thing, that's you, it's your cue. I go running upstage. She's here, she's here, dolly's here. And then we step back into the review, do the whole thing. curtain closed open everybody takes their bows and just everything about me felt right in that moment.

I felt like all of my molecules align and all of my atoms vibrating and precisely the same frequency. And I was like, well, this is what I do. This is what I do. And I just got to figure out how to do it as a job. Was your dad also artistic? No. My dad's a math and computer sciences teacher. He was the department head of technologies, math and computer sciences at the Creative Performing

Art School in Philadelphia. And then like other schools all over the school, the Philly School District for like 40 years. My granddad did some plays in high school and maybe in college. That's the extent of it. My Ambialx Breakdown is supported by Superpower. We all know the feeling of leaving a doctor's office and kind of feeling like we didn't get anything out of the experience that was useful. Maybe they're like, you're fine, drink more water.

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Like it is. It's what you do. And, you know, you can kind of look at any year of your life, I would say, between seven and now and be able to say like this is what he was doing. I had a real mid shift like between, I, I guess 14 and 16, where I had done radio days and I did like, Can't Buy Me Love and had a whole run of playing this kind of kid in movies and guest spots. But I was still on the positive side of it. Like, I always got cast as like the nice, sweet kid that's trying to do something for the homeless people.

And the older I got, like Facts of Life was right in there where. I was starting to look different in the face. And I found that it was easier for me to get cast in more character parts. It was easier for me to get cast in like, rather than trying to play the like handsome, romantic lead, I'm the guy who got that guy's girlfriend drunk, right? Like instead of being the guy who's scholarships in trouble, I'm the guy who's showing the other guy how to cheat. So I started letting my hair grow And I started seeking out Rougher around the edges

Kind of characters And that there was a period of time Where I like had a year of just not being able to get cast I was like I gotta change this up Something something difference got to give here Well and I think also and you know I say this is a tremendous fondness for you You know you're also like the guy at Jewish summer camp

That like is the guy you want to talk to late at night when the other guy broke up with you, but like, this is the guy who's going to, like, sing to you about it and, like, be a really good friend, and then one day you may end up dating and getting married. Like, there's a real, there's a real, I mean, for me also, you know, I, I, we are both Jewish. It's a thing. And, you know, I grew up with, you know, a lot of guys from communities like yours, you know, who were funny and, you know, weren't necessarily like that leading man guy, you know, they

weren't the Ken doll, they weren't the, you know, the Luke Perry, but they were the guy that you want to have fun with, confide in, play with. And so it's a very, that's a very familiar type. And, you know, the word is you're a very Hamish person. Like you're a very familiar, it's a Yiddish word. It's you're a very familiar kind of friendly person. And I do wonder, you know, for me, I didn't start acting until I was 11, but there was a lot specifically in like being a Jewish kid that, you know, there's a lot of performance aspects of Judaism. I like to remind people, like the fact that you have to recite the four questions when, you know, you're the youngest in a family, even if you're not a religious person, like, there's a lot of, there's a lot of

kind of presentation to our ethnic and, you know, kind of religious cultural existence. I've never thought about that, but it's such a great point. Thanks. Well, and also, like, you know, radio days and specifically, like, the comedy of Woody Allen and sort of that generation of comedy was also illustrating a kind of post-World War II sort of existence as comedians and entertainers, which is what a lot of, you know, a lot of Jews were, also in Eastern Europe and Yiddish theater and blah, blah, blah. I am curious. Was there ever a notion of like this feeling like a, you know, a Jewish skill set as a sort of comedian or an entertainer? I don't know. Or not really consciously. I've always looked at Judaism with favor. Like, I don't, I don't invest much in

current theology, but I really appreciate how important all of these legends and rituals. and families are. And I really recognize just how critical all those things are to helping define a person. And so it is probably, it's honest to say that I heard the word mensch from a young age and always wanted to be that. I liked not just feeling like I was a decent person, but being able to back that up with action.

And it's not always easy to keep your work. or be honest about your mistakes or your own responsibility and someone else's unhappiness. But I really strive for that. You know, I find I'm happiest when I'm honest and when I'm able to be reflective, take responsibility, those kinds of things. Because none of those things are a death sentence.

That's the knowledge that you get, right? Is that none of those things are the end of your life. Like being a good person, in the moment or failing to be in a moment. None of those are the end of your life. Do you think of yourself at all? And then I promise I'll leave this alone. But I think it's very interesting, especially, again, the era that we grew up in.

You know, I remember when Seinfeld came out. And people were like, oh, my gosh, look how funny these people talk. And I was like, that's how everyone that I know is, like, what is, of course, we will talk forever about the smallest thing and then like have a debate about it, a family fight, someone will be disowned. And then there'll be a fight over the inheritance over like, did someone have the right shoes, you know? And I wonder, like, you know, for me, and I think for a lot of, you know,

a lot of young Jewish ladies and gentlemen, you know, like your comedy to me is very, it is. It's like very, you're very familiar in a very, like, in a very Jewish way to me. Like when I see you as the friend in something, I'm like, he's that guy. He's that guy from camp. Do you think of yourself like that at all? Or is it just me and the Jews who are like, Seth Green is a Jewish hero? Oh, wow.

I've never thought that. I've always known that if they start rounding up Jews, that I'm on that list. So regardless of how often I go to synagogue, I know by the legal tribunals, my mom is decidedly and I'm getting rounded up. So to that end, I claim my ancestry boldly. And we did the 23 in me. I've got nothing in me but Ashkenauzy Russians and Poles. Like there's literally nothing else all this time.

You're the recessive gene of Eastern European. Jewry. It's fantastic. No, that's why I'm married by my wife. I said, if we ever procreate, I hope they get 90% of your genes. And just like, just my core essence, because I want this kid to live.

No, I haven't thought about it like that, but I also haven't shied away from that. Like, I have zero shame or embarrassment about any of my lineage or the I learned so much about being a good person because that's what I was taught at religious school. It was so emphasized how quickly

an entire people can become marginalized and persecuted. And to that end, it's important to acknowledge the value in every human being. So that, I definitely got that from, from Jewish study, but the second I was confirmed, which was what my parents insisted on, and that class was good. I had like two years of confirmation class. And this is just, just for people who are listening and think that we're Catholic. So after you get bar mitzvahed, traditional, well, kind of reform and conservative Judaism continues the process in what's called confirmation. And it was honestly a way to keep people engaged after bar mitzvah because in Orthodox

communities, they had no problem keeping people engaged because that was just your life and you kept going to religious school. I was also confirmed. It usually comes when you're about 15 or 16. And so I'm assuming, though, after that, you jet it as fast as you could, which a lot of people did as well. But prior to it, I had those two years of confirmation class, which were all study about cultural concepts. It was social studies. It was anthropology. It was cult studies. It was understanding the point you are in at your life when you're this young and full of all these

hormones. I got so much study of what to expect going from 15 to 21. And what kinds of world forces were going to be seeking me out to try and co-opt my energy, you know. It was, it was all about staying away from cults. It was all about not getting caught up in bad relationships. It was, it was really good life study. But yeah, I moved out to L.A. when I was 16 years old, and that was it. I came here to work. There are many, many kids, thousands and thousands of kids who have that experience, who want it so badly and who don't get to do what you did. Do you believe there's something, you know, is there something exceptionally exceptional about you? Do you feel like there's a healthy dose of luck?

Do you feel like you were, you know, in the right place at the right time with the right parents sort of guiding you? Because your dream is so beautiful. And it also, it worked, you know? Yeah, that is. It is odd. No, I think it's a lot of things in Congress. Like, obviously the fact that I was willing to work as hard as I was without getting bent up about it.

The fact that I really saw myself as willing to operate in an adult industry and shortcut a lot of the lessons that should prepare me for being able to do it. I definitely was lucky and in the right place at the right time. I also, I say a lot that I think my career's been defined as much by the things I didn't get or the stuff I said no to as the stuff that popped. What are the things you didn't get that you would like to tell us about? Well, you know, between Jason Bateman and Fred Savage, they've had the career I was chasing, you know? Like I got to, I didn't, I was up against Fred for everything young. I read for Danny Cooksey's role on different trucks.

I tested against him. I tested against the kid for small wonder. Yeah, I mean, that was the era that we were living in, you know. Yeah. And at any of these points, I could have been really well known as a singular thing. And that's the biggest thing I think that helped me last is that I never got famous before I was in my 20s. And by then, I had already seen so many kids get it. squander it. I'd seen so many people become adults and blow it. I'd seen people make money and

spend it. I'd see people think they were unstoppable and get stopped. And so by the time, anybody knew my name aside from casting people, I wasn't going to get blown out. I wasn't going to get tripped out. I wasn't going to buy a Lamborghini and start doing a ton of blow. I'm still going to show up for work and put everything I've got into it. And we also, you know, you and you and and I had other interactions besides facts of life. There was a lot of, it sounds funny to describe it to young people or to anyone now. Like there were these like weekends where they would just like take a bunch of young actors and they would like take us to Palm Springs and like take pictures of us and like see what

happened. And it was like teen beat and like all these like random things. Sounds shady. Well it was like it was Danica McKellar and it was her sister and it was like, you know, it was the, there were, I mean, Corey Haim and Corey Feldman like they were. were sort of satellite and outside of those kinds of events at that time, but that was still that time. I mean, I've known Brecken as long as I've known pretty much you. And there was this cadre of teens. And, you know, I mean, I'm socially anxious and always have been and always will

be. So like those things, it was, I was not a flashy person. I wasn't good at that stuff. Girls didn't like me. Boys thought I was weird. Like it's just like it is now. You know, it hasn't really changed. But, you know, but what I remember is, you know, we did see. We saw, I mean, I get asked this so much. You know, how did you not become a drug addict and die? And it's like there's so many things that went into everybody's life back then, you know. But I wonder, you know, what sort of you remember of that social circle. I think it was much, I don't want to say easier.

It was very different for guys. Just the kind of social milieu at that time, I think, was. I think it was easier for guys. It was still very competitive for females. And what do you remember of that time? There was an entire industry separate from the industry that was making money off of young kids. All of the magazines and promotional parties and contests and fundraisers and stuff. I think it was just a convergence of effort, right?

Agents and publicists and people who want famous people at their event. And that was it. You'd go someplace. People take pictures. Were there for something like, I remember going to San Francisco and like visiting an orphanage or playing a basketball game. Oh, we went to hospitals all the time. We went to a lot of children's hospitals and before social media.

So like those pictures then would have to get out somewhere and put in magazines and things. Or even just be like we did a lot of just good of your heart stuff. They were like, yeah, we're going to take a bunch of kids from sitcoms and bring them to this hospital where everybody's dying. Make these kids feel better. I do my best. I really do. it sounds obnoxious to say but I I I kind of eschewed a lot of those social circles

just because I was working hard I was really I didn't like alcohol any drugs that I was experimenting with were more psychedelics with extensive research and like trying to emulate Timothy Leary or Ken Kesey's discoveries like I wasn't just like getting high and going to work. I was so professional about my work. But I'm sure we hung out at Ed DeBevich more than once. Of that, I'm certain. Ed DeBevics was one of my favorite places on the planet. Well, but anybody who doesn't know this. So Ed DeBevics was a 50-style diner where all of the servers and anyone that worked there were trained at the Groundlings Theater, which is one of the most reputable improv theaters, improv collectives in California. And so,

not only was it a 50s diner, but you had this like 50s character on roller skates and what do you need, hon, you want a hot dog or something? It was like being at Disneyland where like everybody's a theme, or universal, where everybody's like a theme actor. But if you're like a 14-year-old actor who loves long-form character work and improv, having these strangers to just play off of, it was like the greatest thing of my life. I walk in, they got burgers and chicken fingers and food. fries and milkshakes and everybody wants to be funny and like practice running a bit with me.

Oh my God. It's the best. I had a I had like a gold card from the place I was in there so much. When you came out here at 16, are you coming out by yourself at that point? Like are you a 16 year old loose in Los Angeles? Kind of. My agent was like my guardian for the year before my mom moved out. My mom moved out and lived in the apartment above me.

But I was wild. Like, my parents had very limited jurisdiction over me. Did you get formally emancipated? I never had to. I graduated from my high school in Philadelphia. I just had to do a lot of correspondence courses and transfer my records. Right. Well, there were some among us in those years who were emancipated.

And, you know, in Pinocchio, when he and Lampwick, that's what it seemed like when I met those emancipated kids because I was like, I mean, I was pretty coddled and protected by my, my parents. And, you know, I would see, you know, people like Juliette Lewis, she would sometimes. show up in like a cocktail dress that she had obviously worn the night before like. Yo, Juliet's a whole nother level. No, and also like she was an amazing emancipated person. No, she was she was, also like she was super awesome.

But I remember looking at her and I was like, I'm not that much younger than her. But these were older teens to me, you know, and many. And I'm not just talking about Juliet, who I actually ran into her at Critics' Choice. And it was so nice to see her after so many years and all the things that like we saw her go through in the public. But there were kids among us who at like, I think 15, you could be emancipated from your parents. And then basically you were like an adult. You could work adult hours. Nobody was watching you.

Explain to someone who doesn't know what emancipated is. It's a piece of paper that a judge says you are responsible enough and you are working enough that your parents do not have to have jurisdiction over you. You just make all of your own decisions. Well, you can't like get a driver's license. But it is different for contract negotiations. And I believe you can work different hours. It is the hours. It's the main thing. You're not under the same requirement, the minimum requirements for school in a day. So anyone under graduated age has to get four hours of school every single day, whether you're on set or not, you still have to accomplish that amount of school. And you'd get into situations with whoever the social worker was where you would do eight hours of school one day so that you could just not get school the next day. And it was all this weird, I'm shocked. We learned anything. Like, I do feel like I got an education more because it was so one-on-one, but the rules of it are absurd.

When was the last time you were consistently in a school? I was in school like the entire year of ninth grade. Okay. The entire year of ninth grade, as a matter of fact, ninth grade and tenth grade, I did 11th, I did 11th and 12th as a kind of remote thing. But ninth and 10th grade, I had to be there every day. And I was going to fail ninth grade because I was failing algebra. and my vice principal, I'll always remember this. He let me graduate to 10th grade, but assured me that, well, he actually sat me down.

He was like, do you want to stay here? Is that what you want to do? Because you don't seem like you want to stay here. But I'll tell you what, if you fail school, you have to stay here. Or you could just finish these next three years and actually try and we'll never see each other again. literally said that to me. And so I did. I knuckled down and I got on the honor roll for my last three years.

Wow. Just so I could graduate and I kissed him on the mouth at my graduation. And he really was unhappy about it. But I got a picture. There's a picture of it of me like, you can see him like, ah, and he pushed me away. And he said, ha, ha, always performing. I actually would like to get into a little bit of, I mean, I think always performing is that's a great, I mean, it might be the title of my memoir.

Or yours. Mine will be my life on Appleboxes. Yes. But I actually, I do wonder, and this is something that, you know, there are people with your enthusiasm, your energy, I mean, you have a very, very high energy level. And there are people like that, you know, all over the place. But especially in the industry, it's extremely, it's very helpful. Like it's a really, really, it's a great and positive skill.

And you do. You have a really, really good positive. kind of vibe about you. But I do wonder why I play assholes so well. I don't know. I didn't say that. No. No. What I was going to ask is what does it feel like when you're not performing? And was that something you became aware of at a younger age? Because I remember for me, you know, especially when, you know, you're auditioning every day. You got a couple auditions and like you're constantly going out and you're, you know, and then it's like go home and do homework, but like really just like wake up tomorrow and do it again, it's sometimes hard to kind of find who yourself is when you're not performing.

Did you have knowledge of that as a teenager? Do you have it now? Absolutely. Less now because I've really sorted all that out. But when I was a teenager, for sure, especially because exactly that, my task every day was to go out and get this part, go out and be this thing, like, and to surgically kind of assess what that thing was, you know, and not just throw the same plate at it every time, but to really get in, and that's my favorite work, right, to figure out what is true about that part, how to make it funny, how to make it meaningful, all of that.

And I was probably 16 when I was really struggling with having too much energy. But that was a lesson I learned early. The first thing that I worked on, maybe not the first thing I worked on, but I got to do extra work on this movie, called the book of Daniel. And I was like seven and we're in the pool with the AD's trying to pick which of these background he's going to feature. And he had his eye on me for over an hour.

But he's like, you ever shut up? And I was like, what? And he goes, I want to put you in this scene, but you can't even sit still for 30 seconds. And I go, yeah, I can't. And he goes, you sit still. You sit stone still. I'm going to time you. And I go,

I got this. And I sat stone still. I don't even think I blinked. He stopped watching me. And he's like, all right. And he put me in two scenes, like featured in two scenes.

I ran through this thing, got hit with a snowball. And like I run in another scene. And I'm my first one to stand up in a food fight. But I remember that. I was like, oh, man, I'm never going to get work if I can't show them that I can be,

targeted with this energy. It's not always appropriate. But it was really when I was 16, candidly, the first time I did acid, I really got so separated from my ego and, like,

found myself in a completely different state of external consciousness where the whole symmetry of the world came into view. The idea that the atoms that make up our body are the same atoms that make up the air, they're just vibrating at a different frequency. And that literally everything in our entire sphere of consciousness is connected. And that gave me an interesting kind of calm, but it also made me hard target my ego. And what about my daily routine was purely for ego satisfaction,

rather than some kind of expression of my skills. And I worked really hard from that point on to separate what was ego gratification versus what I was giving. And that helped me find a better balance in who I am when I'm performing and who I am in the other times. One of the first things I thought of

when you talked about kind of what you were like. And I remember some of that energy in you. I mean, I do. And again, it's part of what makes you so, you know, kind of good as a performer is that you can operate and maintain a certain level of, you know, like, authenticity and attention. And that's, it's very important. Interference, right? No, it is. I mean, it is. And it's funny because, like, you know, Jonathan will see me after, like, a day of filming for 12 hours when I'm constantly speaking, managing, blah, blah, and it's like,

I have nothing left. Like, it's like you've rung me out. But when we're young, that's the thing. I'm 46. When I was young, I could do that and I could still then go out at night and have a good time. one of the things I thought about was a lot of that energy, you know, outside of the industry is often, you know, pathologized. It's like, this kid can't sit still. This kid needs medication. And I wonder, people didn't talk about ADD when we were kids like that, but there always was that kid in usually my Hebrew school class, you know, like there was usually a few of them who couldn't sit still, who would fall off their chairs, like raising their hand. And they had so much energy and we didn't know what to do with them. And looking back, I'm like, were those kids in need of something instead of being punished, you know, for being so.

you know, fidgety, right? But I'm wondering, did you find that in other places in your life behaviorally? Or is it kind of like once you sort of mastered and identified this, you've been able to have that be the new kind of version of you? I don't think I've ever mastered anything. I'm always sort of trying to evolve my practice of it. And none of it's perfect. Even if I'm describing it as my mantra, it's very hard to practice things in daily use.

I have no doubt. I haven't taken those tests, but I'm confident I'd be diagnosed with ADHD at this point. I'm glad that I wasn't too restricted or punished. And it definitely helps that I wasn't trying to do a different type of job. This job, that level of energy and enthusiasm is really helpful. And I work diligently to develop focus, to develop discipline around all the things that I use as a performer. But, you know, just like you mentioned, doing the podcast, doing any kind of management, running a company, doing all these things that are satellites from your performance, but no doubt connected to the totality of the brand of my ambiolic, right? It has been exhausting. I've been a partner in this production studio for the last 10 years, and we've produced like 30 some shows.

and in between that, I've still attempted to maintain a presence as an on-camera performer and develop things for myself as a performer and, you know, work on other people's projects as just an actor. And it does take a different kind of planning and prep as it used to because I'm much older. My brain is so full of so many other things. And I've got this bit of wear and tear. But also, and probably the same as after that first acid trip, I've been really focused on maintaining the integrity of the vehicle that ferries my soul from place to place,

try and make my body as safe and sturdy, healthy as possible at all time. Someone who has had the level of production and things that you've been in, like you're prolific, like, where does that come from to keep going? It's the thing I love the most. It's the thing I love the most. Getting a bunch of people together and putting on a show, making the audience feel something.

That is my favorite thing. You mentioned Acid, and I actually just recently watched the Michael Pollan, beautiful documentary series, How to Change Your Mind. But I wanted to know, have you ever been in therapy? Not that you need to be. Oh, yeah.

Oh, no, no, I love therapy. Oh, my God. Therapy. What a gods said. Jesus Christ. Yes. please, please, everybody go to therapy. You know, it's a tough thing because you have to find somebody that you can talk to,

and they have to not be some hack that's just got this degree and is giving you shit information. And it takes a second sometimes to find that person, and that can be really frustrating to go through the whole process of updating somebody with what you feel are your most important issues to struggle with. And having to retell that story over and over again only to find this therapist is ill-advised about how to advise you. Or not a good fit for any number of reasons. Yeah.

But I started, I went to therapy together. The first time we went to, I went to therapy with my family. My parents got divorced around the time I was 15. And we did a bunch of family therapy over the next two years to try and work it out. I hated every second of it. The more I pursued authentic performing, the more time I spent studying why people do what they do. Like, I love getting a scene that is just this long.

And I've got to say this, you've got to say this. And what we're trying to relate to each other is this, but what we're trying to relate to the audience is something else. And I didn't just come to life at the beginning of the scene. So who is this guy before this happened? What did he have for breakfast? Do you type a guy that has breakfast? And I, you know, not to be methody about it,

but all that stuff gives me a very firm center to speak authentically in whatever role I'm playing. So I love to do that work. Going through therapy at a young age and like knowing what the circumstance, knowing what the result was and then having to forensically analyze, like, how we got here, that was really interesting for me. So I get my mom, I get my dad, I get my sister and myself. We're all talking about how we feel about this moment of our family splitting up.

And what that game is like, well, the way I feel about this moment is predicated by all of the, or predicated on all of this other experience that leads me to this moment, which means even my parents deciding to break up came from like a series of significant experiences that were beyond my comprehension at that point. I didn't know what it was like to get married. I had no idea what it was like to have a kid. but coming at it from that perspective and it was probably all the psychedelics but I got to really be comfortable with the idea that your parents are just people that had a kid and that nothing more than that they're going to do their best whether this was intentional or by accident

you may never know but that's what happened and so there's no magic there's no great architect texture that you need to analyze. It's as simple as you're going to figure out how to love and forgive this person who's just a person that gave birth to you. So that was your first experience with therapy. That's very intense. To be honest, to your credit that you went back at all ever again after having to sit there as a teenager with your parents and your sister. As weird as it sounds, I wasn't, I wasn't emotional about it. And I, and I think it's something that boys go through a lot

in that time period is you, you kind of get it beaten out of you, the concept that you're allowed to be emotional. And even though I grew up on free to be you and me and Sesame Street and some very hippie parents with some, you know, heavily post-70s influenced 80s programming. But I didn't really start feeling like it was okay for me to be outwardly emotional until I was probably 18 or 19 and maybe even a little late. Nah, it's probably 18 or 19 because that was when MDMA came out in LA

and oh my God. Talk about a positive emotional experience. All of my experimentation with the ultra-pure MDMA just made me feel like, right. There's no reason to hate anything or anyone because there's something beautiful in all of it. And it's totally okay to be very happy or be very sad. So I'm curious, though, about your kind of therapy journey.

Was that in conjunction with these years? No, no. I didn't get back into therapy until I was in a relationship between like 25 and 28 maybe. Is that right? Like 24 and 28. And we went through a lot together. and we got into therapy together. And I started seeing a therapist on my own

and we were seeing a secondary therapist for couples therapy. And had both of those experiences of like, this guy's not the therapist for me. Oh my God, this is not the therapist for us. So we had to go through a couple of different tries. And we wound up splitting up. So we didn't stick with that couples therapy. And I got to a place where I didn't feel like we were resolving anything.

So I split from that. not other therapist. And then my wife and I, when we first got together, I'm not even sure if we were married yet, but we got into therapy together. Hated that therapist. Oh, my God. One of the worst. She was so bad, this poor lady, she just really was certain that I needed to ignore what my wife was suggesting and that Claire should give up her dreams of being in entertainment and just support me the more successful husband. And we were like, I think you're a bad therapist for us. Like we walked out of there and we were like, she's crazy.

Right. Let's just not do we don't have to talk to her anymore. Right? We can just not. We want to stay together. That's actually what we're here. And then in the last couple years, my wife and I found a great therapist. We both see her independently and together.

And so that's been really helpful. I love working it out. Your mind changes as you get older. You can't even help it. Hormones, the way your blood flows, like all these different stimuluses, I think therapy is really, really valuable. I love the realization that you can be very, very happy

or very, very sad and have no judgment on either of them. To achieve some state where things just are as they are without an analysis or judgment on them or a commentary on them is, I mean, as you described it, it's extremely freeing. Yeah, it was a liberating bliss. All of these things, whether it's, you know, ayahuasca or hatha yoga, like they are all designed to open up the channels in your mind that are, you know, just closed by alternate perceptions. you get told something is true long enough and you'll just believe it.

And then you have an awareness of like, well, that's just not true. And it's okay if someone else believes it, but I know that's not true and I don't have to operate as if that's true. Well, and I think also the culture of drug use, you know, has shifted so much, even just in Seth and my sort of lifetime because we were both raised on the DARE program and just say no. And if you try pot, you will end up on heroin and then you'll die and your mother will be sad. Like, that was a lot of the messaging, which, you know, I, as a parent, I especially understand the desire to terrify human children and make them not want to ever do drugs, have sex, or leave your house. However, I think what a lot of us discovered, you know, often in our teens, was that what we were told was actually not true. And I would have much rather people be honest about the, the drug experience, the purpose, you know, in many cultures of, expanding consciousness. And also, we were alive at a time when you knew you were getting MDMA

when you ordered it from the dude. And now it is a lot more complicated. And the amount of synthetic combinations that people are experimenting with, I'm sure is a great time if you're into it and it goes well. But the fact is, it is a very different world to be in the world that my teenagers are growing up in and yours, Jonathan, where I literally have had to say, I don't know that there's a human, I think you should trust in your life, except your mother and father, to tell you that something is pure and not cut with anything.

And not even your mother and father, unless they're chemists. That's true, because I, you know, in my youth, ate a lot of things that were not what they were supposed to be. Right. And luckily, never did any of the things that several people I knew did down to the influence of things that were not what they thought they were. Correct. Or ended up in the hospital, even with a panic attack, which is embarrassing at the least. Just rounding out this exploration of consciousness, it's also about bringing that new realization back and integrating it.

Because it's one thing to just have it as a window, but then how do you live with that new realization and can it continue in your life? It's just practice. You know, the same way I talk a lot of. lot and I'll and I'll interrupt my wife without even realizing it. And I think that I'm just elaborating on her concept and instead I'm completely deterring her. We've been married 12 years and I've had to like, yeah, I'm never good at it. But I am more aware, more aware than I was even yesterday. So that's my that's the best I can do, right? You have to be mindful in your in your efforts. You have to be earnest. If you really want anything to change, it has to to be consistent.

What's on your self-improvement list now? Like, are there things that you're like, oh, I'm working on this right now? Talk less. It's very hard on the podcast. I used to joke about this, though. Like, you, as a performer, you don't have so many opportunities to discuss yourself,

but in the last 20 years, the audience's appetite for more behind-the-scenes information, and more personal information. It's put everyone in a constant interview mode. And I used to say that. There was a time where I'd do like two movies a year, right? And in between that, you have to just like do the press, all the press. You do big couple things of press.

And I'd even have to police myself going to personal social things in those times. I'm like, guys, I'm stuck in interview mode. Stuck in interview mode. Everybody's like, how you doing? I'm like, everything's great. It's coming out the next week. of the whole thing. And I feel like I've gotten stuck there for years because I'm constantly in the position of running a meeting or starting a conversation. I relate. I do want to ask about your

relationship with pot. Has that been a constant for you? Is that something that you feel helps you? Like, how do you use it, as it were? Yeah. I never liked pot. When I first started doing any kind of drugs, I thought pot was the dumbest, the dumbest. And it was highly unregulated at that point. And anybody that I knew who used it was just stupid. And I'd see them at parties and I'd want to have like a cool conversation. And they're like, I am so soon. I don't even know what you're talking about.

I was like, these are fucking idiots. I don't want anything to do it. And I never liked pie. And then I was in my 20s and had had chronic insomnia since I was like 14. And the kind of insomnia that Green Day sang about, Like it was, it was just up for days, up for days, couldn't sleep and then be so exhausted that I'd like fall at like nap at work or some, anything. I didn't want any of the pills, any of that stuff. And one of my buddies that I like to paint with, he was like, you should just try and like get a little stone before you try to lay down.

And I was like, okay, I did. And I slept. and it was great. And so that became a, not an all the time thing, but it became a really reliable thing. That if I was up and I would get up because my brain just keeps me awake, I could just smoke a little bit and I would sleep.

And then as I've gotten older, it definitely, and especially as it's gotten regulated, oh my God, the predictability of it, it's wonderful. I do find that, Different strains can help me relax. Different strains can give me the kind of focus that people take Adderall for. So to that end, I think we're good friends. But I also don't advocate anything in excess.

I don't think prolonged, consistent use of anything in the same way will even yield the same results. So it's sort of like exercising. You always got to shift it up to figure out what works for you. Curious if it impacts your writing at all and your creativity. not to a negative effect I found. I wrote a movie and I wrote six completely different drafts of it over a period of years. And I would often set myself up exclusively to work. I'd make sure I had nothing else.

And we had a different house at the time and I'd go out by the beach and like work. I was just going to work. Be here to work. Got to get through these things. I'm trying to turn this skeleton into. to a movie. I'm trying to turn these this outline into scenes, like all of that. And so I would smoke

a, I had a really good setiva leaning hybrid that I can't even find anymore. It was a really good plant. Smoke a little bit, get myself in the headspace, and then just write all that. So the film that you mentioned, you're being,

you're being humble, you wrote, you directed, you produced it, you started in it, correct? Yeah. Yeah, it's dumb. So dumb. With Brecken, yeah? Well, of course.

He's the most dependable co-lead I could ask for. And it's called Change Land and it's on Amazon Prime now. So I did want to mention that more specifically. That's really awesome, incredibly. Thanks. I wanted to tell a story of friendship and how best friends come in and out of each other's lives. and how you have to hold up your end of the bargain and how it's never too late to start over.

Robot Chicken is currently available for streaming on Adult Swim at HBO Max. Family Guy, in case you have been living under a rock like me. Family Guy is available for streaming on Fox Now, Apple TV, Hulu, Prime Video, ChangeLand, check it out on Amazon Prime. Anything else? I don't know. Have a great weekend. Okay, have a great weekend.

Thank you, Seth. Cheers, guys. So nice to get to talk to Seth Green that way. You know, I've had very interesting, limited interactions with him in my life. And Ed DeBevix was a place that I liked because of the feeling you got there. It was like, it did. It felt like you were at a theme restaurant. It brings up a lot of difficult memories, and I didn't really want to talk to him about it because I don't want him to feel bad.

What about it? It brings up a lot of complicated memories because I was not, you know, social. skilled in the years that he and I interacted in groups and he was very socially skilled. You know, he was really, he was always really comfortable with himself and I was never comfortable with myself and, you know, have struggle with it now. So it's kind of interesting to see him now because I wish I could have talked to him more at this level when we were teenagers, but neither of us were the place we are. So anyway, that's a silly thing to wish. But yes.

What do you think makes someone comfortable with themselves versus not? Because he didn't fit in 100% he was definitely different he has this amazing positivity which i wonder where that comes from and i wonder if it ever turns off and he goes into a dark hole what do you think it is um you know my my the neuroscientist in me believes that we're all born you know with a combination of um genetic templates which you know is about the the ways that hormones work in your body it's the way that you, you know, manage yourself in the world. There's a genetic template, you know, that you come with. And then there's an environment, you know, that you were raised in. And I think as we've all kind of seen in our experience as humans, you can take, you know, a hundred people who

are abused the same way, right? And they'll have a hundred different or 50 different, you know, reactions to it, meaning like, sometimes you'll meet people and you'll be like, how did you become the way you are and they're like, well, I had so much adversity and therefore. And then you'll speak to someone who's depressed their whole life and cannot get out of the cycle of depression. You'll say, how did you become this way? And they'll say, well, I was abused. And, you know, and you had so much adversity. Exactly. I had so much adversity. And so that is, you know, that's the, miracle of DNA. And as much as we're alike, we're also not very alike. And so you inherit coping mechanisms. You inherit ways to process the things that happened to you. You know,

Some children realize that eating a chicken means you're eating that chicken from every kid's book and cartoon you've ever seen and they never eat chicken again. And then some kids realize they're eating chicken. They're like, that's cool. I'm going to eat chicken forever. Right? Like that's people. I don't mean to be so, you know, sophomoric about it. But it's like, people are different, you know.

But yes, I wonder what his parents were. I watched the same shows he did. I listened to the same movies. And I don't know. I ask you because people desperately want a formula. Yeah. They want to like look for the things that they can point out that contribute to I want to feel like this. I want to behave like that.

I don't want to have that experience. And so if only I can evaluate my past to figure it out. Yeah. And that's not that different from telling someone who's depressed to like stand up straighter. Acknowledge how amazing you are. Look in the mirror. Tell yourself you're beautiful. Or the hunter or great.

Well, and with all due respect to Hunter. Like, I can't, I mean, what, when I try and do things like that, I just start crying. What does that mean? And to people who don't immediately know what we're talking about because they're not in our brains, we're referring to the Hunter-Mergady mantras that she gave us in that episode. Well, she talked about, you know, kind of radical acceptance of your body and radical sort of positivity. I do think it's worth mentioning. Seth talked a lot.

He did talk a lot about drugs. He made many references to, you know, consciousness expanding experiences that he had I think first at 16 and, you know, kind of throughout his life and has, it sounds like, you know, done a significant amount of research and that can mean different things to different people, but a lot of the people that do choose to use mind-altering substances with kind of mindfulness, they often do research, which means they control the environment that they do this in. they know the source that they are getting their, you know, drugs from. And they've either spoken to people who have experience with that and know what to expect,

what could happen in a good way, what could happen in a bad way. And in addition, I, you know, a lot of people do experiment with alcohol and drugs in some very unregulated environments. And that can be really, really unhealthy. It can be really dangerous. And I don't want to be flippant about, you know, his many. of those drugs. I have a 16-year-old. Do I think he is ready for ego examination and mind-altering drugs and expansion of his consciousness through acid? No. That's just my kid. And, you know,

Seth had also a very different upbringing. He had a lot more freedom. He had a lot more maturity. He had been dealing in an adult world, but he was still a 16-year-old kid. So I definitely, I do appreciate, you know, even when he talked about, MDMA. I know this is open to interpretation. I felt he was speaking respectfully about a drug that many do see as a party drug. And, you know, for those of us who were alive in the early 90s, especially in these here parts, it was. It was a party drug. It was a drug that allowed a lot of people to access simply feeling good for an extended period of time in a way that you didn't have to think about anything that was bad. And,

that works for a lot of people. It also works as a way to get addicted to that feeling very well. And I do know people whose use of MDMA did have, you know, negative consequences. And it likely was about a lot of other things. But I did also want to touch on cannabis for sleeping. Is this something that you've heard of? Like, it's a thing that people talk about, right? Like, I have definitely heard about it and also think that it's a slippery slope. Well, so part of the problem in talking about, pot and really any drug is that once the government decides that it's something to be criminalized

we lose the ability to do research on it because it is illicit and it's dangerous and there's a tremendous amount of negative propaganda about you know about acid about mushrooms about mescaline about peyote like about a lot of and once the government says

this is dangerous it shuts the door we had Rick Doblin on who's been one of literally the four most people saying we've closed ourselves off to an aspect of these drugs that also can help people access really important things. So that being said, there is some research about chronic pain, about post-traumatic stress disorder, and multiple sclerosis, where pot can be helpful for certain sleep conditions. Also, restless leg syndrome, which is a real drag, apparently also can be helped by cannabis. In terms of the self-treatment, meaning people are self-treating when

you're using it for insomnia, anxiety. That's a lot of people I know. That is what their prescriptions say when they go, you know, when they used to go to the store and you had to have your card. And, you know, I'll be honest. Of course, Pot makes you feel less anxious. Like, of course. In terms of insomnia.

Some people more anxious. Some people more anxious. And we actually, that was very interesting when we talked to Charlemagne the God about panic attacks that were induced by Pot, which I have experienced. It's very, very unpleasant. but generally speaking, you know, the THC component does, you know, I'm trying to like, you know, not say it in a bad way. It suppresses many aspects of processing that can feel really pleasant.

You know, it can feel really pleasant to not have a burden. The problem that I see is that when you sober up, you know, when it wears off, you kind of, if you go back to being the same person that you were, you can do that loop for the rest of your life, right? The idea is kind of Seth mentioned, and as you, you know, wisely intuited, you know, what are you bringing back from that experience? What is it giving you? And people are going to be like, you're no fun. Like sometimes it's just fun to be stoned and drunk.

I totally get that. That happens to not really be my jam. It never was. But I know that for many people, that's not a problem, it's something they can do. Great. Have a good time. But in terms of saying like potworks as a sleep aid, it often, you know, interferes with your REM sleep, which is when we,

we do dreaming and sort of more of the complicated emotional processing, which if you have post-traumatic stress disorder, if you have any other sleep disorder, if you have any psychiatric or psychological problem that is making it hard for your brain to shut off, hard for you to not think about bad things, or hard for you to not get restful sleep, yes, I can absolutely see that pot feels like a tremendous relief, because if you are plagued by nightmares and night terrors, yeah, this would be really, really a tremendous source of relief. question is, what else are you doing to address your post-traumatic stress disorder, your sleep disorders, your chronic nightmares, your fear, whatever it is. The slippery slope is, I know people who use it

for that very purpose, and it stops having the effect. So you have to increase the dose or you have to change it up. That's called tolerance, yes. And it changes your sleep architecture. It does. If you disrupt REM sleep, like, and of course, like everybody's going to have variable sleep, but do you know what happens if you deny animals of REM sleep? I think it's bad. They die. You can't do that test in humans, I promise. But yeah, REM sleep is critical for survival. And I think the studies were in mice. I'm sorry. That's a very big thing. So I want to be careful because if you're not sleeping at all and you start to get some sleep, it's better to have a, the architecture of your sleep disturbed than it is to have no sleep. And if you're having terrible nightmares, if you

have some reprieve on that, you know, it's like do the thing that helps you. Right. you deal with the most severe thing. Correct. But anytime we're starting to use a substance to help us address something, it has downstream consequences. Correct. And the fact is, you know, newsflash, you can become an addict. It's a thing.

It happens. And, you know, I remember always being told, like, well, pot's not addictive. And then when I first experienced pot, I was like, hell yeah, this is addictive, because I'd rather feel this way than any other way. So, Eve, I don't care the chemical structure. I don't care this, that the other. I get that it's not the same as cocaine. I guess that it's not the same as heroin. It's not the same as nicotine.

One of the most advertised and sold products by the American government, you're welcome. But, yeah, what you get addicted to is not feeling shitty. So, the more you tuck your problems under your

weed stash, sorry, do I sound 12, the more you your problems under your weed stash. You sound 75. I knew someone who called joints Marijuana Cigarettes. She was well into her teens. And I was like, that's a woman who's never been at a fun party. One of my friends' mothers would say to him,

are you going to do your marijuana? My mom always refused to call it by any of its hip names. Even though she grew up, like, in the 60s, smoking, doing mescaline. And watching the earth breathe. She wouldn't call it one time. I mean, that's what we called it. she wouldn't call it pot. What would she call it?

Marijuana. Malijuana. Anyway, that was a delightful conversation, and I will say, you know, we haven't done a you might need help if, but sleep is very, very serious business. And I also appreciate all the advances we've made in the understanding of sleep and how to get good sleep and blah, blah, blah, blah, and don't be on your screen an hour before going to bed and blah, blah, blah, blah. but also if you find that you are relying on any substance, even alcohol, to go to sleep,

I strongly encourage you to get a different kind of support. I'm not saying go cold turkey, stop doing it. That's not my business. But this kind of stuff is, it's cumulative. It is cumulative what you're avoiding. It's cumulative what you do that's helpful and it's cumulative what you're avoiding. Very true. Okay.

That's it. follow us. We have so many new friends. Tell people about us. At Bialik Breakdown on Instagram. Bialik Breakdown on Instagram. Oh, I'm wearing my mantra shirt. Now I want to make a new shirt with Seth's mantras. Stop talking. I need that mantra. He and I are very alike. It's kind of interesting. He's a much more external person. I'm a much more internal person. But processing and how do I make you happy and that being the basis of performance? How do you make me happy? We're still trying to find out. From our breakdown to the one we hope you never have. We'll see you next time. Breakdown she's gonna break it down for you she's got a neuroscience PhD or two

One fiction was and now she's gonna break down