The Adam and Dr. Drew Show - Classic #168: Brian Koppelman Returns Pt. 2

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

August 13, 2014: Brian Koppelman returns to the show to talk about his process of becoming a screenwriter. Adam and Dr. Drew also take listener calls.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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to bet online today. That's bet online. The game starts here. Well, it's time for part two of the Brian Koppelman returning episode, August 13, 2014. Again, Brian Koppelman is that really an interesting dude. Screenwriter, a television writer, wrote Billions, and he talks about that process. And, of course, Adam and I take some calls. sticking with us and supporting us and clicking through Amazon and also PayPal. It's a good ju-ju. You know, a little something keeps the lights on over here, keeps fuel in Dr. Drew's Audi. Thing eats up and you drive hard, baby.

Did you guys get the Gary and Chris, those emails I sent you about the nuclear energy versus coal stuff? Yeah, a lot of comments on that. Yeah, but you're saying some articles, some links, articles I want to put up on the website. Yeah, we'll put them up on Adam and Dr. Fisher.com. Supporting what we were discussed. They're already up there. Okay.

By the time you're listening to this. Thank you. All right. And we'll get into that in a later show because I do want to get in that a little more depth. But, yeah, Drew drives with purpose because Drew and gusto. Well, no, I mean, you're always going somewhere. You know, shit. Yeah, I want to get somewhere.

You have to get from one spot to the next spot. and you always are hitting the ground running. All right. Phone calls, Drew. Is anything looking good to you up there? Start the top of the pages. Just go right through. Let's talk to Robert, 31, North Carolina.

Robert? Hi. I'm Robert. I've been listening to you guys since I was 14. I've been in Minneapolis. And shortly after the little incident you had where you had someone throw a bottle at your head at him out in Wisconsin. A Yeager bottle, a Yeager bottle, a Yeager bottle, right, yeah.

Yeah, that was me up on stage, bringing out Iggy Pop and corn and Art Everclear and everyone else. Yeah. Yeah. But, okay, here's my question. I am someone who's fairly successful. I've done a lot with my life, the author, and ran a consulting firm. Now I'm working with some friends in a consulting shop. But it took me until after college to discover grit.

It took me until after college to realize that I was going to have to actually put work in if I wanted to accomplish anything in life. And I now have a eight-month-old daughter. And my question is, how can I save her from 21 years of kind of burning time and lose opportunities. How can I try to instill that grit in her?

Yeah, grit is a tough thing. Well, first off, I guess we could even discuss whether you can install or instill grit into somebody.

If somebody really resist, it's pretty tough. You know what I mean? If somebody just lies down. Well, we all know, hold on a second, Robert. We all know,

and I've said to this many times, said to people many times. You don't think you have the intestinal fortitude to quit smoking or to go on a diet or to lose 20 pounds or whatever it is. But we also know that if a plane went down in the Andes and you were just left up there, well, you wouldn't be smoking. Right. And you wouldn't be eating over at China Grill.

You'd be eating the pilot. And you'd lose that 20 pounds. And you wouldn't be smoking, you wouldn't be drinking, and you wouldn't be anything. So technically, it's all possible. I mean, I say to people all the time, you know, nobody is not motivated and nobody's lazy and nobody's yawning when you're being chased by a Kodiak bear. Right. You're fucking running.

So it's within you. Now, the question are, can we create the circumstances? And here's the problem. The problem is we live in an air-conditioned world with flat-panel TVs everywhere and my pantry looks like a fucking supermarket and basically looks like a Willy Wonka's fucking workshop in there. How the hell do I get my kids to go outside and sweat when the air is blowing inside they got a flat panel TV that has seven, not only 5,000 stations, they can watch whatever they want, whatever. movie they want in perpetuity and then a closet filled with fucking junk food yeah how do we do do that and that that is just the basic sort of reward circumstance or the you know the pain versus pleasure diathesis you know how much pain does people avoid how much pleasure do they seek

there's even another layer though that actually for me is more problematic which is akin to how do you get a drug addict to stop doing drugs they don't want to because there are they're adolescents that will just, like, lie in their back. And then you go to school and, like, fuck you. Right. And that's not even that pleasure pain, you know, alchemy anymore. Right. That's just they're resistant and they won't do shit.

And you can't, you know, if somebody wants to lie in their back, you can prop them up and stand them up. But you move your hands, they fall back down again. Yeah. That's a really tough situation that people get into sometimes. My feeling, Robert, is what we need to do is, start realizing that the pain of non-accomplishment is much more excruciating than whatever pain or calories are associated with the journey to the accomplishment. But how do you get kids this day when there's an ambient culture that goes,

that give up? It's no use. You can't win anyway. It's the, you know, the guys in charge have the edge, and they're going to continue to be dishonest and weasel their way out into power. out. That's the ambient culture we live in. It's the ambient culture because, first off, I believe that that is perpetuated by people who have not had as much accomplishment as they would be comfortable with and who beat that drum because it's a very convenient

drum for them to beat. Now, as a white male, I don't really have any. thing to fall back on. As I said a million times, if I was black, I would assume there was a ton of racism. Take a look at every neighbor I've had. I had the

crazy Israeli chick at my first house is fucking nuts. I had the old man who was calling the Department of a building about a hedge and checking unsanitary living conditions.

In other words, if I I were David Allen Greer, and I lived in my house, and there's a crazy old white guy next to me, and I went over to him, and I said, excuse me, look, if there's a problem with the hedge, simply tell me or tell the gardener, and he'll trim it. But you don't have to have court hearings about it, and you don't have to check unsanitary living conditions. Right. So the assumption is trying to make sense of this crazy behavior, well, it must be because I'm black. Well, if you take a look at these. How else can you make sense of it? If you take a look at the Israeli cunt who lived next to me when I was under the Hollywood.

sign. And when she sues you now, you'll assume. I didn't use her name. I just called her crazy Israeli cunt. But the point is this, I would have no other choice if I were a woman or I was gay or lesbian or black or whatever. You just assume. Asian. I just assume. She doesn't like my people. It would be rational sort of conclusion. I don't know what else. Honestly, in a world where I'm always looking for something else. I don't know what other conclusion one could draw. I bought a house that was an eyesore that was falling apart and coming undone. I sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars and thousands of man hours into making it pristine and taking something and doubling its value. You live next door to me. This is the greatest thing in the

world because I've turned what was this rat-infested covered with weeds falling apart thing into basically Disneyland. And you ride me the entire time nitpicking and criticizing and calling the city and so on and so forth. Now, as a white male, I looked at them and went, these guys are fucking assholes or they're nuts. If I was David Allen Greer, that there would be no other conclusion to draw. Yeah. So, oh, Robert. Yeah. Robert, where were you?

This notion of, you know, even though, and it's insane. to me because they do the like, bye Robert. Bye, right. No, I'll be back. They go through the Forbes top 10 highest paid entertainers in the land and

eight of them are black and five of them are seven of them are women. You know what I mean? There's just no way we can keep you down today. Even if we tried to keep you down as a woman, as a gay, as a

Latino, as a black. It can't be done, even if it was the overall plan of this nation. And by the way, I don't know what's in it for me, sort of the white devil. What is in it for me to keep you down? I don't want poverty for you. I don't want gang violence. I don't want the cycle of poverty. The assumption is if somebody's in power, they don't want to relinquish it to anybody else.

It's not about relinquishing it. about bringing you up. I, I, when, when I am driving down the 10 freeway home from Loveline and the 110's been blocked off and I find myself in the wrong side of town, I feel uncomfortable. I don't want to feel that way at 1230 at night. Yeah. But I do. There's nothing in it for me.

Yeah. I'd love everyone to prosper. Yeah. Pay taxes. Educate your kids. It's going to be awesome. Yeah. Believe me, even the most racist guy wants.

everyone to prosper because it benefits him just for his own selfish greedy needs to have that not caught off the wrong side of the 10 freeway in the wrong neighborhood bonfires of the vanities style you know what i'm saying oh yeah so where we're with robert so robert here's my thing about that i know i know adam is uh busy in the behavioral camp and in the uh video game outdoor activity. My kids play a ton of video games. I think the educational system offers the biggest opportunity for that. You just keep them in really rigorous education.

You constantly challenge them. Then you make them do things, do sports and activities that have, you know, insurmountable stress or sort of, I don't want to say tasks, but, you know, the things they have to overcome adversity. They must overcome. And they learn that they can do that. want something that either A, don't want to do or B, don't think they can do it. They learn they can. And that to me, those are where there's ample opportunity for that kind of thing.

And if they start doing it on their own, like they see something that's, oh, my God, I can never do that. And they, on their own, initiate the climbing of that hill, you're in. Yeah, you're in. Can I say this, too, Drew? Yeah. Something I don't feel like we touch on enough as a society. We talk about role models all the time and examples all the time or dads being there for their children and blah, blah, but teachers and what teachers can do to, cha, cha, cha, here's the thing. First off, teachers, we give them credit like we give firemen credit.

But how many house fires have you been in? You're, how old, Edra? 54. 54 you're uh you passed a halfway point in life i'm what hell am i going to do the math 55 55 all right you're basically the the grim reaper's riding shotgun when you hopping that out of today yes indeed okay how many i'll ask i'll put i'll put everyone's put everyone here who has been saved by fireman and let's just get everyone's combined age Drew's 55 I'm 50

that's 105 years on the planet Gary 30 29 and 28 We're on your quarter birthday or eighth birthday My quarter birthday is next week Do your parents have a birthday Like we used to have in the studio Where we'd have the breaks for Gary's birthday

It's the uh it's the like the paper machet The bioretha chain and I just rip one off every week All right. So, U is, sorry, 29. 29 and 28. Max Pattis, 28. So we got 57 there. And I got 57 and we go 162.

162. Zero saved by Fireman? That's correct. Okay. Then we could go talk to the rest of the guys in the bill. But I guess we'd get to 250 years and nobody had been saved by a fireman. Right. So let's back off a little on how important these guys are and what huge heroes they are.

Could we? They don't impact your life. They're one of those things that I don't understand statistically why we don't just focus on shit. It's like, hey, the fire department's running out of money. These guys are heroes. These guys, blah, blah, blah, what if your, but if your house was burning, huh, wouldn't you want? It's like, right, except for I never been in a house fire. Now, okay, teachers, I had a bunch of them.

I remember the bad ones. I remember the weird ones, the funny ones, the whatever ones. In terms of impact in my life, right up there with the fireman. This is an ad by Better Help. Look, you all spill your guts to a lot of people that may not be professionals. Why not see a professional? They know what they're doing. Therapeutic practices work.

Guess what? It can be better if you actually go to someone who's trained, licensed. and I just don't understand people's resistant to it, particularly these days, when you have things like BetterHelp, you don't have to sit in a waiting room, there's no embarrassment, it's all, you can do it right now on your computer, and of course, seeing trained, licensed individuals. BetterHelp has been doing this for over 10 years. They've matched over 5 million people worldwide, and with Better Help, you just jump online, fill out a short questionnaire, and they match you with the right therapist, flexible, convenient. As I said, you can do it from,

not just your couch, you can do it from wherever you are right now. I, you know, I, you know, You know, Zoom therapeutics, this sort of, essentially it's telehealth. It works. It's a good thing. So stop treating your buddy as your therapist. I mean, yes, friends are important. Don't get me wrong. But if you need to talk, talk to somebody actually knows how to help, right, Daphne?

As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Talk it out with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash Adam and Drew. That's BetterH-E-L-P.com. Gosh, Adam and Drew. This September, CBS hits are streaming free on Pluto TV. I'm coming in half. For this month only, you can watch full seasons of the CBS shows you love.

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At 1866 531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. But MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. It's Kelly Clarkson here to talk all things Wayfair, the best place to buy furniture, decor, and anything else you can think of to create a home you absolutely love. I know when I shop with Wayfair, I find options for every style, whether I'm feeling boho or farmhouse, modern, traditional, French country. I can find exactly what I need for my home and more. No matter your space, style, or budget, shop Wayfair.com to make your home way more you way fair every style every home really was this well i had a little different

trajectory than you see i had a huge of me i think i think your teachers negatively impacted you that's the problem well they probably did but the point is it's more than the firemen well firemen are zero right teachers had an impact coaches had an impact oh coaches are huge yeah coaches were huge teachers negative in your case. In my case, but in life, we go way too over the top with it. Look, here's what you can do for your kids. What you can do with your kids is you can have them observe you doing the right thing, taking care of business, loving them, loving your spouse, whatever sex you may be,

and generally going about your life in a way. Meaning, donut, when you're in the fucking supermarket, don't let your kid see you grab a couple of grapes and pop it in your mouth. And then your kid goes, hey, did you pay for those grapes? You go, ah, don't worry. These guys make a ton of money. They don't need me and my grape money. They'll be fine.

That stuff's all noted. We talk about the lessons that are taught by the teachers and all that. It's mostly bullshit. It really is. This idea of, hey, there's an astronaut. He's going to come in. he's going to lecture the kids on what it's like being an astronaut. And it's, you know, everyone's dad's going to come in and talk about, you know, what they do for living and all that kind of shit.

By the way, I think those days are gone because we can't have a dad. We can't assign a gender to work anymore. Either way, all that stuff pales in comparison to literally seeing mommy and daddy take care of business. And when I say business, I'm not confining it to business. I mean the business of them. Running the household. The business of feeding them. The business of educating them.

The business of taking care of business. Just seeing how my wife is with Molly. We have a sick dog. She takes care of the dog on a nightly basis. It's hand feeding her. It's giving her insulin shots. I know that's imprinting on my kids. I know they're saying there is a generous, warm person

who's doing the right thing. There is somebody who is... Certainly Sonny's getting that imprint. No, Natalia was feeding Molly by literally reaching into a bowl, grabbing her wet food and handing it, in hand-feeding her. When I say, you know, Daddy has to go out,

Daddy has to work this weekend, and, you know, Natalia will go, why does Daddy, why can't you be at the ballerina meeting? and then Sonny'll go, that's how he makes the money so you can go to the ballerian. That's all imprinting in their minds. And we have decided that it takes a village. Fuck that village. Fuck the village.

Assume the village is fucked up. Assume the village doesn't agree with you and some of what would be, let's say, your values. Focus on you in your little village, your home village. That's what's going to imprint on the kid. All I ever do is talk to adults and they go, I saw my dad fill in the blank, good, or I saw my dad, and this guy would get drunk and he would chase skirts around the town and bang cocktail waitresses and he was chain smoking while he was down. You know, fill in, I saw my dad, I saw my mom, now you fill in the blank. That's what's most important. somehow it's become neither here nor there and it's become the role of the school teacher

and the firemen to save us they're not going to save anybody you're not good teachers are going to be helpful they ain't going to fucking turn your shit around they'll just be helpful but they ain't going to turn it around turn it around at home so with my kids and as I've said many times. We've done charity events that involve adults and booze and adult language and so and so forth. And my wife has said, we got to get a sitter. And I said, hell no, we don't. They're coming with us. And she said, well, but they're just going to get in the way and we're going to have to keep track of them and blah, blah, blah. And I said, I want them there seeing what you've put together, seeing that the money's going to the children's hospital, seeing that the relationships

that daddy is made with these performers and these comedians and these bands and how they help, how they will step in for no money and come perform and then donate the money. Oh, kidding me? Yeah. This is better in any fucking week at school. Yeah. Huh? Yeah.

Huh? Yeah. Huh? Yeah. Tell you what's better than any week at school. Tommy Johnware. Oh. Transformative.

That's what I would say. I'm a new man. I am I, it's wearing, Gary. It pisses you off that you've been wearing underwear the wrong way for however many years you've been to life. Well, somebody get me some of this stuff. Under shirts, underwear. I totally hear you guys talking about. They even have socks that are wildly innovated.

But here's the thing. I said many times, wearing a T-shirt under your dress shirt in the old style, it's like wearing swim trunks underneath your pants. It's like, it's a shirt on a shirt. Yeah. This is not. This is like bodyware. Your wife posted a picture of you jump roping in your bedroom. There he was, all the Tommy gear, Tommy wearer gear on all of it.

It's always wear it while he's jumping a rope. It's breezed. It's all we're wearing any time anymore. It started dancing on the. What was that? It was prancing. I skipped. It wasn't jumping.

It was skipping. I skipped. I skipped rope. Skipping. But when my wife or Olga walk in, I start a little jig. You start prancing. And I start. the jig and then I always say I don't like to brag and then Olga goes no and it's a big

joke well now it's on Facebook I do it for their entertainment go to Tommy Johnware.com experience a life-changing comfort enter the promo code Adam get 20% off your first order that's Tommy Johnware.com promo code Adam get 20% off all right one more call shall we hear Sure. Let's talk to Ted, 29, Rhode Island. What's up, Ted? Hey, guys, how are going? Love the show.

Thank you. Thank you. Hey, Adam, it was funny you mentioned the eating the grapes in the grocery store thing because my old man used to tell me that the bulk candy was free samples. Oh. I would walk around eating all the free candy, and then I tried it when I was there with my friend's mom, and I got pulled into the security office. Oh, my God.

Wow. Interesting. So, the reason I'm calling is I just got engaged, and I'm Italian, but my name is kind of Germanic, and I've always kind of felt robbed in that way. Did that make sense? Yep. Robbed of your heritage? Exactly.

I wanted to honor that. So when I think about having a boy, the name that's always come to me as, like, a strong, you know, masculine name is Santino. And that's Sonny's name, isn't it? Yes, it is, it is Sonny's name. I was just wondering how you guys landed on that and if that was your idea or Lynette's and if she had any problem with it

because my Irish fiancé is not too fond of. Well, anyway, Ted Hair, genocide, Chryslenock. This is his last name. They normally don't write him up there, but I said it because he said it was... I wanted... Germanic.

Germanic. I wanted... I... Well, first off, was an easy sell. It was, too. things. She's, Lynette's talking, too, though, right?

Right. It's easy sell. Well, she's 100% Italian. So, easy sell. She also loved the godfather. Oh. And Sonny's her idea, by the way. Also, thirdly and fourthly and fifthly, I suffer from, and I'm not one of these people,

and I hate it when people come to this country and then break off and start their own culture. I don't mind the pride. what I mind is the you come here and then you set up your own country here and never stop waving the flag I don't appreciate that I want you to blend in

learn the language learn the culture and prosper with everyone else by the way no one here is from here do you think you should retain none of your country of origin stuff it's kind of nice stuff some of that you like one of the restaurants where you can get the cultured food

no I eat far more Chinese food Quiet. No, no, I don't eat Italian, though. That's my point. I like the idea that there's Chinese Italian aware, but I don't say I'm only eating Italian because I'm Italian. Right, right, right. I don't, I don't, I look, I like, I like cars.

So I like Maserati and I like Lamborghini and I like Ferrari. And I'm glad that I'm from the land that makes those cars like you should be glad that you sound like you're from the land of Audi and Porsche. The point is this. there's nothing wrong with rooting for your land soccer team when they're playing another land. But when they're playing the USA, you should be rooting for the USA. That's me. All right. And getting steeped in the language and never learning the language and all that kind of stuff.

That is a path to ruin for you. And your culture, whatever your culture is, we've seen it many times. So I would like you to join our culture, not because I love our culture, but because I'd like you to prosper. drive in our culture. Now, as far as the names go, I, who don't bang the culture drum that often, have been plagued by being named Adam. You masturbate the culture drum, though. You don't bang it.

Yes. Adam makes people think I'm Jewish, and I'm not sure why, but there seems to be a lot of Adam Jews out there. And Corolla is clearly Italian, but it's not linguine, you know what I mean? So what people do to me all the time is they go, Corolla, what kind of name is that? Now, obviously, if my name was Santino Carolla, there'd be no questions. Yeah.

And there would be no confusion. And people are kind of dumb that they don't get Carolla. First off, your last name is your name of country of origin, not your first name. So it's like, if your name Ted Gaspacarino, why are people going, Ted? Ted, focus on the fucking last name. A lot of people did go through LSI where they changed the last name. And if your name is Moisha Pine, people are going to go, oh, I get it. Yeah, no, I understand.

But Adam is sort of neither here nor there. And then Carolla is an Italian sounding last name. My whole life, everyone's been confused. Weird. So I said it would have been a lot easier if I was just named Tony Carolla. No one would ask me what my origins were. So one is a confusion thing I like. Number two, it was Lynette's idea.

I did not have to talk her into it. Natalia was based on Natalia Seglutie, who's an actress, who I thought was very fetching and lovely, but I also thought her name was really nice. She came into the love line in, you know, 1998. I remember going, Natalia, it's a sweet name. I just like the name. That's where her name came from. And I was just stuck in my head as kind of noted. And then when everyone...

It's nice when you have multiples because you have, you know, everyone gets to pick a name. You know what I mean? You're not fighting over one name here. Well, look, if I hated Natalia and or Lynette hated Natalia and I hated Sonny, we would have fought. But I like both the names. All right. And I like you. And I love you helping us fight the patent trolls by clicking through Amazon and bookmarking it at Adam and Dr.

Drew Show.com. Also, again, a little abbreviated schedule for a few weeks. We're just doing a Thursday show because we're moving around and Drew's traveling and I'm doing Catch a Contractor. But all that stuff is going to be wrapped up pretty soon and we'll be right back to our twice a week schedule. If you want President Me sign, send the jacket in. We'll sign it with the care of it. And until next time, this is Adam Crollough for Dr. Drew, Chris Max Patton, Gary Halfdard, saying, Mahala.

This September, CBS hits are streaming free on Pluto TV. I'm coming in hot. For this month only, you can watch full seasons of the CBS shows you love. From the courtroom drama of Madlock to the heroics of fire country. Go back to where it all began in NCIS origins or watch the hilarious hauntings of ghosts. All for free. Full seasons of the CBS shows you love. This month only on Pluto TV.

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