Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out - 73. Michael J. Fox: When Your Hero Comes on Your Podcast

Episode Date: May 30, 2022

This week Mike welcomes one of his all time heroes, Michael J. Fox. Not only is Michael a five time Emmy award winning actor who has starred in ‘Family Ties’ and ‘Back to The Future,’ but his foundation has raised over 1 billion dollars to help fund Parkinson’s research programs. This week Mike and Michael work out material about not getting the Hugh Jackman treatment at the airport and Michael offers profound wisdom like: “You have to accept the truth of the situation before you address it.”For a written transcript of this episode, click here.Please consider donating to: The Michael J. Fox Foundation

Hey, everybody. We are back with a new episode of Working It Out. Today on the show, we have Michael J. Fox. He's just a legendary actor. I mean, between Family Ties on television, Back to the Future, countless films, television shows that are incredible. The Good Wife, The Good Fight.

We talk about a lot of his acting stuff. He actually recently wrote a book that I love called No Time Like the Future. It's a memoir. It's so funny. He also wrote another book called Lucky Man, a memoir. I mean, just a fascinating writer, creator, actor. And we go into a lot of his nonprofit work with the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Luckyman, a memoir. I mean, just a fascinating writer, creator, actor.

And we go into a lot of his nonprofit work with the Michael J. Vox Foundation. They've raised over a billion dollars for Parkinson's research over the years I've performed at a bunch of their benefits. I've done fundraising events. It's just a great, great group of people. We talk about this a little bit in the interview, but sleep disorders, like REM sleep behavior disorder, do have some correlation to Parkinson's. And so one thing they wanted to mention, the organization, is that if you wanted to volunteer for a study, if you have a sleep disorder, go to their site, which is michaeljfox.org. I should note that I just got finished with my run of shows at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago. It was so much fun.

It was really an extension of a lot of the work that happens on this podcast and making changes. And I continue to make changes and try different things. I next go to London and then Paris, Iceland. I go to the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, New York in Long Island, which is phenomenal. It's this gorgeous little 300-seat theater.

And then I go to 40 performances in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum. Incredible, incredible theater space. And I'm announcing some tour dates in the fall, coming up soon that are, a lot of them are in the Midwest and the South

because I really want to get to as many cities with the old man in the pool as possible. Michael J. Fox is someone, it's one of the coolest guests we've ever had on our show. It's someone who I am completely in awe of. I think we have a great, great conversation today.

This is a unique thing for this episode. We put a transcript of the episode on Burbiggs.com. So if you want to follow along with it, if there's anything

you don't understand, there's a transcript of the interview. It's a great talk. I'm always in awe of and love to talk to the great Michael J. Fox. I want to recommend

your recent book because it's funny and it's definitely a good thing for people who are struggling with adversity because you actually, you know, you have a, you go there to the dark places, but then you come out the other side. How do you think you get there? Because it's like, I feel like there, it's like how few people would be diagnosed with Parkinson's and their instinct would be, well, I'm going to try to cure Parkinson's. Like, to me, it would be like the ultimate excuse for why not to do anything.

Were that the case? I agree. It would have been. But it was an evolution of behavior and a thought and a reaction and attitude about it, which was the first time I was diagnosed, and I kind of, the first thing I had to do was square with Tracy and find out we were okay and if she was okay. And she had no idea, of course, and she said she was okay. But it would have been, two weeks later, I said, enough of this.

But we didn't know what was going to happen. We didn't know. enough of this. But we didn't know what was going to happen. We didn't know Parkinson's vaguely as a geriatric disease. Some people had like Muhammad had it, but that was to an extent pugilistic dementia.

And it was all this stuff that I was trying to figure out. And in the meantime, I hit. I hit for seven years. I worked and I did my stuff and I didn't tell anybody. The doctor told me that I had 10 years left to work. I was diagnosed. So,

so I, I was a big shot at 49 years old and I had a lot of stuff going on. And, and so I really freaked out and I just signed a big contract to do like a bunch of movies for a bunch of money. And, and it's just all irrational thinking and, and,

and crazy thinking. And, and so it's after a period of about seven years, I went through all kinds of stuff. I went through figuring out I quit drinking, which was not an effective tool in dealing with Parkinson's. And then I had a great moment with Tracy where she evaluated my situation

and very calmly, without anger, said, is this what you want? Is this what you want to do? Yeah. And it shook me. It just shook me. And so I dealt with that and I dealt with getting sober. And then I started to understand the disease more.

I started talking to more doctors and I started to talk to, on the sly, more patients. And it just really kept it close. And by the time I had released it to the public, I'd gone through these huge evolutions. I quit doing films out of the country and out of the city. And then started Spin City and picked up my kids at school every day. Went to the home every day.

Went to the movies at night. We had a regular life. And that was good. And then I started to see opportunities to do stuff. And I just realized that I had to devote myself at that time totally to the foundation. So it wasn't just like, let's do this. Let's get this done.

It was a long, it was a long trip through the desert. Yeah, yeah. And you, like, at a certain point, the foundation crossed like the $1 billion raised for Parkinson's research, Mark. And I would say there's a great deal of pride and a great deal of affection and gratitude, everyone involved. A billion dollars, 20 years, we haven't done it yet. Yeah.

But I want to get it done. And so I'm very happy that we raised a billion dollars. We've had great help from key donors and great help from Parkinson's patients. That was one of the cool things that we did. We started out to be a research foundation and to be a foundation that was really focused on that next big breakthrough. And that's happened. And we've broken some key initiatives and helped some drugs to market and done those things you'd expect us to do. initiatives and help some drugs to market and demos as things you'd expect us to do but one of the things we become is is is a focal point for the energies of the publicist community

of their families of their children of them themselves whether it's as simple as finding a who's doing a bike-a-thon in your neighborhood uh or perhaps a more impacted that in the long run is getting involved with clinical trials yeah and we have a list of clinical trials. It's called Trial Finder. You can find something in your precinct that has opportunities to be of service. One of the big things we're into, and it's tricky because it's not a cure per se, but it's close as you can get for those undiagnosed. There's a series of symptoms.

Yours is one of them. Yeah. In your interrupted REM sleep and messed up sleeping. Yeah, I have REM sleep behavior disorder, which I've documented comedically in a lot of places. You actually mentioned why you were passing my screen in the morning the other day. I should have said hi. You were walking a raccoon and wearing a funny hat

but uh do you find that uh because I find this with my sleepwalking is people think I'm an expert medically and I have to be like no no no I don't know I don't know a tenth of the things these people know

I would disagree with you to that to the extent that patients aside from all the Latin and the diagrams that you can't make sense of we know more than our doctors because we know what it's like to have the disease. Oh, that's funny. We know what it is. Like, yeah.

And I'm an expert on that. I'm an expert on what it's like to live with Parkinson's. And I don't want to forfeit that in any exchange I have with a doctor. I don't want everyone to yield that because it's really important. It's earned, and it's powerful. That's funny because, like, I think one of the things, I mean, in addition to the foundation, which is so impressive, it's like your acting is still great.

You have this great line in your book where you go, as an actor, I can convincingly play anyone on Earth as long as they have Parkinson's disease. Which is like, that's a great comedy line. This whole trip has been really weird. Like I said, I've had a really tough time in the last few weeks beyond what was in the book. No, I know.

I know. I'd heard that you had some trouble with your hand recently. Yeah. You know, the things like antibiotics and one-size-fits-all kind of thing when you go and take it to the hospital. God bless them all. They're great. They work really hard. But for example, Parkinson's, they don't know what Parkinson's

is meant to do. And they just have a patient that will not, that requests a minimum I don't drink, so I don't like their products. I don't like And they just have a patient that will not, that is requested minimum. I don't drink, so I don't like, I'm like morphine. I don't like any of that stuff. I don't want anything in my body. I want them to make me succumb to their whims without being messed up for three months.

And so then what happens they they dedicate you lightly and it's nice well you start to move a little bit yeah they have to hit that and hit that and and then you're kind of in another realm and you're not dealing with your initial issue whatever what are you dealing with which drugs or the problems is hard for people to figure out yeah yeah and so they don't know how to deal with it. Say they. There's a tendency to not know how to deal with that set of issues. Yeah. I had a hand injury.

My doctor would say, be still. It's supposed to be still. That'd be great. You figure that one out. Give me a call. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha.

You figure that one out, you let me know. I think one of the things that's remarkable, though, is like, you're on Curb Your Enthusiasm, you're on, you know, Rescue Me and Good Wife with, you know, with some of the the symptoms and i think what's remarkable as an actor i'm looking at you going like well you're still a better actor than me and like i got it all i got all the faculties i'm banging on all cylinders you gotta deal with all this all this shit it's like what what as an actor are you held back from is there anything that

you're held back from doing that you couldn't do before yeah i am significant block with the last i did um i was cruising along doing a good wife and and and larry's show and all the other stuff and really loving it and loving that that idea that everybody has parkinson's or that that they that i can do anything. I don't have Parkinson's. Two shots are related. Everybody has Parkinson's. Everybody has some shit. Yes.

Everyone has something. Sometimes they do. They do not do. And, and so everybody's got this thing they're working on. But I'm curious, like as an actor, like so much of it is observation and then observation,

you know, seeing how people behave and then acting. And it's like... Well, that's the key thing. You can see past the Parkinson's. You can see past the other issues that they may have. And you see the central,

the central actory and... Yeah, yeah. But we can find the central truth. We can find the essential truth of that character. And this guy's afraid. I do that. And I look at that and it's We can find the essential truth of that character. And this guy's afraid. I do that. And I look at that, and it's really a lot of fun.

Like, I love playing this guy on Good Wife, who was just evil. I mean, I really like the vibe with this guy. He did what you do. He played on people's emotions. Played on their sympathies. Yeah. Played on their best intentions. Yeah.

He just mutilated them with it. and their best intentions. Yeah. Just mutilated them with it. And then when I did, I used to go to a spinoff from Good Wife, which was a good... Good fight.

Good fight. I couldn't remember the lines. And I just had this blank where I couldn't remember the lines. Oh. And it was strange because it was family times. They used to give me the script

and I'd go, my man, Valerie got off the phone. Wow. I knew it like in an in. Valerie got off the phone. Wow. I knew it like in an instant. And it continued to be a way for me. I have 70 pages of dialogue on a Marvel movie and knowing that a hugely expensive steady cam shot,

depending on me knowing those lines, would be a trickle of sweat off my brow. But it just ended up like that. And then I got to this point, I'm on the sound stage in in cover city i can't get i can't get this line together it was this legal stuff and i couldn't i just couldn't get it but what was really refreshing was i didn't panic i didn't freak out i just went what's that moving on the key element of this process is remembering lines, and I can't do it. I done a Kiefer show in Canada, I presume, Last Man Standing.

You'll get it. So I had the same problem. And so I was saying about that time, I was on a big Tarantino fan, and a big Brent Piffin, and a big Leonardo DiCaprio fan, and I loved Once Upon a Time in Hollywood for a lot of reasons. One was when I moved out to Hollywood, just after that.

And experienced a lot of that old Hollywood business. Instead, he was doing a scene in a Western show, and he couldn't remember his lines. He went back in the dressing room, and he was screaming himself. in a western show and he couldn't remember his lines. He went back in the dressing room. He was screaming himself. He was like, you know,

he was just tearing into himself in the mirror and like drinking and it's just a mess. And I thought about that. I thought, I don't want to feel that. Am I wrong not to feel that? Am I right to feel that?

But here's what it tells me. I don't take on somebody who I don't want because I can't do it. And for whatever reason, I can't do it. It just is what it is. I can't remember five pages of dialogue. I can't do it.

Can't be done. So I go to the beach. So do you find, it's like they say, you know, my Aunt Lucy is blind and she has a better sense of hearing. And people are, you know, sometimes if they don't have their hearing, they have a better sense of sight. Do you feel like from Parkinson's you have a better sense of like observation or like anything like that? You're walking me right into this stuff. It's beautiful. Really? Yeah. Well, because one of the the things i don't say this often anymore and i used to say it all the time but i'd have to just say it again i couldn't be still until i couldn't be still

yeah i couldn't i couldn't gauge what that center of my of my of my uh of my um equal living was that that that like there was a place i could get to that that was came about and my understanding of it came about because i had purposes because like saying i like it with this thing i don't have that choice anymore i don't have this choice i don't have that choice i have other choices yeah and so and so i just i couldn't be still and see those choices until i couldn't be still. It was other crap. Yeah. Like the, the,

the, the, the peripatetic wanderings in, in, in, in weird flailings and, in body impulses that I, that I feel as a Parkinson's patient,

a sober Parkinson's patient or nothing compared to that, where I felt as a drunken asshole. Like, I mean, that, thought was a drunken asshole. I mean, that was a completely different thing. I couldn't be still. I was less still than I am now. Once I'm moving around, I hear the ocean, I hear what I'm doing, and the light's nice,

and I can be a friend, and it's all good. Just take this now and enjoy it. So I had this one thing on the checklist, which is when I was a kid, I wanted to be you as an actor and as an adult, I want to be

the kind of person who does the kind of things you do with your foundation. And so I wrote, you always try and deflect compliments, so, but I'm requesting

that you say thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. And I so appreciate what you do. First of all, you work as an artist. You truly are a unique informer on our times. From your point of view and what I try to do from my point of view, it seems like a really small corner of the world,

REM sleep disorder and sleepwalking, a big part of the world and you're sharing about it and your insights on it are huge and they help me understand a lot of things about lack of control and acceptance and in

family, what family means and so I love the work you're doing and I love the chance to get to see you. So this is this thing we do in the show called The Slow Round. It's based on sort of memories and things. Do you have a memory from your childhood where it just comes back to you sometimes, and you don't even know why?

A lot of those. Let's take a random one being four years old and walking with my parents at the age of a pond in our neighborhood looking for frogs we're finding turtles and just saying for frogs but i found turtles looking for frogs and finding turtles i found turtles and then that turtles are really important to me. I have a turtle tattoo. The sea turtle, they didn't have those in the pond in Chilliwack, B.C., but turtles remain important to me. Why are they important to you? Well, this turtle, I have this tattoo, which my wife just hates.

So I can't get another one. But it was New Year's Eve 1999 into 2000. And we were in the Caribbean, St. John's. And it was real swanky. There were a lot of cool people there. All his family, Mel Brooks, all these great people. Yeah. And then we were going into this year.

This year, the world was going to end and all the computers were going to crash. I was looking for some kind of clarity. I was trying to figure out where to leave the show and start the foundation. I went swimming in twilight and had a quick swim and go get ready for the evening. The kids were getting ready.

I suddenly went for one last snorkel. I go in the water and step on the beach. Very shortly into my snorkel so I go in the water, I step on the beach and very shortly into my snorkel, this turtle comes out of the weeds. He's like this big, massive turtle and he's missing a chunk out of his fin and he's got a big scar on his,

and I said, this mother has been through it. This guy has been through it. You go back to the little trundle down the beach like probably 30 years ago where everyone's getting picked up by ospreys and badgers and stuff. And this guy made it. And there he was in my area,

like my zone. So I looked at him, so I'm asking for a while. I just got to, this guy was going to do the next right thing. His only agenda, do the next right thing. I got a little water,

and I said to Tracy, I said, I'm not leaving the show. I'm going to do the next right thing yeah I got a little water and I said to Tracy I said I'm not leaving the show I'm going to do a foundation wow I said I mean it seems very like self-generated

like lore but but but it's truly what happened yeah what's the best piece

of advice that anyone's ever given you that worked? My father said to me when I wanted to be an actor and move to the States, and he had no comprehension. He thought I was a hippie. But I was working, and he was a military guy. And I was working, and he couldn't argue with that. So it was a sense where I was like, as a 17-year-old,

I was making maybe about $1,600 a year. Like a good set of money. So I enjoyed the course of all my work. But when I said I wanted to move to Hollywood, he said, well, if you're going to be a lumberjack, you might as well go to the goddamn forest. And that was it. I got it. And other people like jeffrey

kassenberger said to me when in the bull ring don't wear red oh yeah and and and and uh that's what else um it's just and just it's just about like a lot of program stuff a lot of again to specifically but but a lot of that stuff with the program that helped me quit drinking and get sober, is about acceptance. About understanding and about, just like, if you accept something, it doesn't mean you resign to it. You need to get an endeavor to change it.

But if you accept the truth of it first, this is the truth of my situation. Under those terms. But if I look at it from another angle, it gives me opportunities and it gives me all kinds of chances to do things. Yeah, I think that's phenomenal advice. I think that's one of the very strange things

about this moment in history in a broad sense is that the what is true is so heavily debated that none of us can get to acceptance on kind of the worldview of the whole thing. It's terrible. I mean, you can run into a door and... Like everything is... You said there's no accepted truth.

There's no good faith attempt at a co-understanding. There's no... People won't exploit that. And both sides, although, you know, we always say that there's unfair character in two different situations, that this is this, and this is real.

But the other side sees it the same way. And even seeing it on the other side, like those terms, it's also screwy. Everything is polarized. Everyone's forced to take a position on a truth that is not filtered through their own process of right and wrong,

but it's filtered through some other gas bag in midtown Manhattan coming up with this crap. It's hard. Yeah. Do you remember being an inauthentic version of yourself from any part of your life that you cringe at? Oh, yeah.

Wow. I used to have to run a reel. Being like David Letterman, who I love. I think I was up 41, 42 times over there. The boy and man in the NBC, CBS spectrum. But yeah, I remember going on a show with big glasses and cowboy boots. 42 times over the boy and man NBC CBS spectrum. But, yeah, I remember going on a show with big glasses and cowboy boots. What, you got your roof?

Oh, my gosh. Was that in your 20s or 30s? My 20s, I was at any given moment anybody. Oh, my gosh. I was just, like, I came from Canada in 1979. I worked for a couple of years and did like, it was Boomer and Lou Grant. I mean, it was kind of like a weird trading thing. And then I had to sit.

I was a little bit down. Do you play poker? A little bit, yeah. I was down to a chip and i was a little bit down to it you play poker a little bit yeah i was down to a chip in a chair i was down there like and then i and that had all kinds of implications if i left i owed the irs like ten thousand dollars so i wouldn't be able to come back and earn that money back oh my god i mean and i knew going back my brother who's a great guy had a lot of construction sites. He was superintendent of that. I would have been picking up nails on the construction sites. It just all was bad.

It was down to the last second. And I got family ties. And my life changed. Oh, wow. Like, that's just, always have that. Always have that thing to look to and say, shit can happen. Like, you can't set the bar high enough.

Yeah. To eliminate the bar high enough. Yeah. To eliminate the possibility of good things happening. And that's the thing, like, we'll say, I'll point it to crap. How can you be optimistic? It's all terrible. It's like, how about you? But I'm hanging off that last minute when it's great.

And I'm pulling in. Yeah. Growing up, do you have a memory of, like, a really strange neighbor or a really unique neighbor? Yeah, I have a minute. Yeah. Growing up, do you have a memory of, like, a really strange neighbor or a really unique neighbor? Yeah, I had a few. We had a woman that we lived in. At one point, when my father was in the military, we lived in a three-story walk-up of Middlegate Apartments.

And it had a swimming pool, but that was fetid and awful. And I think it eventually shut down. But the manager of this place was a woman. She was insane. She had dark, like she was a country star. Anyway, she had dark, glowing, raven hair. And she wore like white cowboy boots. And I don't think they had Spanx then, but Spanx-like.

Yeah, Spanx then, but Spank-like. Yeah, Spank-esque. Material. And she was very brusque and very, and it was always an opportunity to warn us children that we would be the cause of the eviction of our parents. Yeah. And I'd say, why are you going to hit a nine-year-old about behaving like that? And I had a pet mouse about science class, and then he got out.

So then I was the scourge of the neighborhood because I let this mouse out in the neighborhood. And she was just, I mean, she said, I found that mouse. I live in fear of this woman coming, popping out of the house, demanding that I find this mouse. Like, he's a white mouse. He's not like a sign of pestilence in the building. He's clearly from the bedside. He's a white mouse. He's not like he's going to float in and be like a sign of pestilence in the building. He's clearly

from the bedside. But that's a weird neighbor. So like, when you watch a movie, read a book, you know, see a play, like,

what's the thing that you crave? Like, what's the thing that's your, like, favorite thing? Honest human connection.

Like, I was watching a movie last night. It was really cool. And I don't often like films like this. It's called Ring of Fire. It's about these dragons that populate Europe. And Christian Bale plays this guy who was one of the first ones, as a kid, to find the dragon. And his mother was killed by the dragon.

But it was Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, was one of the first ones as a kid to find the dragon. And his mother was killed by the dragon. So, but, it was Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, and, and Gerard Butler. All in this movie. And we're all great. Yeah. But,

look at that, and I say, they're all great. Christian Bale can act his ass off. Yeah. You know, he just,

that's another level. Oh, that's a whole thing. McConaughey is great in this role. He's all puffed and his eyes are flinty and he says stuff with a cigar in his teeth. That's all great. But Christian Bale, in this goofy movie,

he's making you cry. He's so good. Yeah. Do you have a smell from your childhood that you remember? Yeah. Do you have a smell from your childhood that you remember? Yeah. I don't have a smell now, which is a function of Parkinson's disease, which is another one of those things on the list. No kidding.

Jeez. But I remember the smell of pine. Just after Christmas, this apartment building I lived in had balconies, fire escapes, and everyone would put their trees out there for New Year's and before they picked up, they just couldn't put them on the road. And the whole place smelled like pine, smelled like a pine forest.

Wow. So what's a thing that you've always enjoyed in your life that you're still enjoying that's like, you know, in solitude? I love to meditate at the beach. I was just doing it this morning. I used to sit on the beach, do a pound of the know, in solitude. I love to meditate at the beach. I was just doing it this morning. I just sit on the beach. You pound the waves, get the rhythm,

and just go. And they come back 25 minutes later and say, well, nothing's changed, but everything's changed. I wrote this joke recently when I was in Minnesota, but it makes me think of Canada, which is I find that people who live in these cold climates, they're so tough. You know, it's like they have calluses for the weather at a certain point. So I was making small talk with the taxi driver from the airport. I go, how's it going with the weather?

You know, because it's zero degrees. airport i go how's it going with the weather you know because it's zero degrees and the guy and the taxi driver just goes i can't take it anymore and i i thought i thought can you can you take it for another 10 minutes because we're pretty close to the hotel when you were growing up in canada did you ever clock how goddamn cold it is there? Yeah, sometimes I got really cold. Like, what I think of when I think of cold is going on cabin trips. I went on a cabin trip

in November. It's like, for school. Yeah. It was so cold. And I didn't believe the children didn't die. And they would have

carried on anyway. But it was so cold that, that, that you, you, you, you're freezing from the inside out. Yeah.

Like, normally the inside of you is the last vestige of warmth. It's like, starting to burn your perineum and just radiating the fingers of ice through the real body. Yeah. I think that there's, I think there's correlation

between comedy and weather because the amount of comedians and comedic actors out of Canada, Minnesota, Massachusetts,

I mean, it's completely disproportionate. There's a lot of truisms about the business, by the way. Time plus tragedy equals comedy. Yeah.

In other words, heat is the enemy of comedy. Yeah. And the other is heat is the enemy of comedy. I've never heard that. Heat is the enemy of comedy. Guarantee, you go to the set of some sitcom and have an audience, you have that thing

cranked down to like 62. Because if you hold your weight and if you're awake, you're alive. If you're alive, you're going to be involved in whatever shiny thing they put in front of you

and that's our show. Yeah. And then I jotted this thing down recently, which is just a true story. My whole career, I've heard about these professional airport greeters who escort celebrities

through the airport. And I always thought, that's not for me. It's not who I am. And then during the pandemic, I was like, all right, I'm going to do the airport greeter thing. So I meet this woman on the curb, JFK. She walks me through security. And we're walking through.

Totally, this is word for word. She goes, one time I told Hugh Jackman that there's a little nook behind a restaurant right there in Terminal 2, and it's private, it's got great food, and I brought him there, and he loved it. And I go, is that where we're going? And she said, nope. And then we went to the food court.

And then it was never discussed again. At Little Muck, we were at Little Muck. You know what I mean? You were chatting with those. Yeah. Never discussed again. At Luma. Who was at Luma? They don't eat. You eat Jack in the Box. Yeah. And then we went to the food court, and she tried to use her card for a 15% discount, and the cashier said,

is it for you or is it for him? And I'm holding pizza that's clearly for me, and I go, oh, it's for me. And then we didn't get the 15% discount. That's when I realized I am not Wolverine. I'm like an Arctic fox eating a pizza at full price. You can't buy that again. They can wait.

They can get you the pizza at a discount. Yes. What is the, because you, I mean, genuinely, I grew up on your movies. And to me, I look at you and go like, well, you clearly like have it all. You could do anything. What is the luxury that actually is as good as someone would think it is? I can say yes first to my family.

I say yes without thinking about it. We want to go here. Yes. Oh, that's what you're saying. I like have this first to my family. I say yes without thinking about it. We want to go here. Yes. Oh, that's what you're saying. I like have this for dinner. Yes. Yes is the first answer because they've never done anything to dishonor that. And yeah.

Yeah. But it's a great thing. Like, like, like, can we go to Disneyland? We've been to Disneyland 14 times. Never in a line. Yeah. What's the, What's the inverse? What's the thing that doesn't matter how rich and famous you are,

it's just you got to deal with it? Well, I mean, that's every day. With this, I look and say, I can't. And then the other side, I can't go there. I can't go on to Hawaii. I can't go to the store right now. I can't go to the restaurant right now. Okay, so the final thing we do on the show is it plays right into what we're already talking about, which is working it out for a cause.

And if there's one thing that you want people to know about the Fox Foundation, what is that single thing and how can they help? Is it, I, I'm afraid it's Barack Obama, but if we, you are the agent of change that you live for. Yeah.

You are the tool that'll get this done. And you can get involved with trials, you can get involved with anecdotal information that goes into several pipelines that then make that information accessible. Again, accessible to researchers and other patients. And we can sit around and talk about it. We can do something about it. Yeah. And doing something about it, maybe sitting around and talking about it, but it's attached to it in action.

Yeah. We don't have an endowment. We don't have a big pile of money that we can go out to people. Money comes in and goes out. We've identified the science before we've earned the money. And the science is ahead of the money. And so we can't,

we can't reach that. And we get a place where that money is ahead of the science. We've done it. and so we can't we gotta reach that and and we get a place to where that where that the money is done we've done it michael uh i can't thank you enough for doing this this has been so enlightening and i feel honestly i feel so lucky to have met you one of my heroes in my life and to witness close up so you know what you're able to do sort of on and off screen is unbelievable. I can feel some of your time as you say, you first of all are a genius. The work you do, the things you find, the truth you seek out and find and the observations you make always touch

me. Thank you. Thank you for getting involved in our foundation. Thank you for all of your talents and our efforts and love to your family. And everyone, thanks. Working it out, because it's not done. Working it out, because there's no hope. That's going to do it for another episode of Working It Out. That is Michael J. Fox. You can support the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's research at michaeljfox.org.

You can follow him on Instagram at realmikejfox. I follow him on Instagram. I'm at berbiggs. Our producers of Working It Out are myself, along with Peter Salamone and Joseph Berbiglia, consulting producer Seth Barish, sound mix by Kate Balinski, associate producer Mabel Lewis. Special thanks to my consigliere, Mike Perkowitz, as well as Marissa Hurwitz and Josh Upfall. Special thanks to Jack Antonoff and bleachers for their music.

They are on tour when they're in London. I'm going to be in London. I'm going to get to see them again. That's how I'm in Texas. They are on fire. Bleachers as always. Very special. Thanks to my wife,

the poet, Jay Hope Stein. Our book is called the new one. It's a mixture of, very special thanks to my wife, the poet J. Hope Stein. Our book is called The New One. It's a mixture of poetry and comedy. It is at your local bookstore. Support your local bookstores. And Jen's book, which is called Little Astronaut

is a collection of poetry. You can pre-order today. It comes out in September. It is a beautiful book. As always, a special thanks to our daughter Una, who created a radio fort made of pillows. And thanks most of all to you who are listening. Tell your friends. Go on Apple Podcasts and say,

which was your favorite episode of the show? And so if people come on, they see the 75 episodes and they don't know where to begin, they can look at your recommendation and go, oh, wow, this person is directing me to their favorite episode. Thank you all for telling your friends, for telling your enemies. We're working it out. We'll see you next time, everybody.