The Bobby Bones Show - BOBBYCAST - Milo Ventimiglia on His First Big Yes, Gilmore Girls & This Is Us

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

Actor Milo Ventimiglia sits down with Bobby and shares what he learned working alongside Will Smith, then breaks down the TV breakthroughs that changed his life—from getting on the map with Gilmore Girls to launching into a whole new stratosphere with This Is Us. He also gets real about the “99 no' before a yes” grind, how he memorizes lines, and when you’re allowed to ad-lib (and when a set won’t let you change a single word). Plus, the unexpectedly hilarious side of Milo: Blue Angels stories, “chirping,” and why he has very strong opinions about passing out mid-flight and what it was like learning to sing for a new role when vocals weren’t even in his bag of tricks. Watch The BobbyCast on Netflix! Follow on Instagram: @TheBobbyCast Follow on TikTok: @TheBobbyCastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance.

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Just a little bit bigger hips. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? Oh, they hit a bogo. Well, then you got it. Listen to soccer moms on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Miles. And I'm Brianna Stewart. And our podcast, Game Recognized Game has never been done before. Two active players giving you a real look at our lives and what we actually think on and off the court. Nothing's off limits. We talk tanking. I might get in trouble for this answer, but I think it's like definitely happening in the WBA. We talk about our mistakes too.

They pulled me to the side and was like, hey, man, we got a call last night, man. You can't be rolling around the city like this tonight before games. Check out Game Recognized game with Stewie and Miles on the I-Hour. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ashley was having a party, and my role was I walked down the steps with a girl in my arm, and Ashley runs up to me as this party's happening while her parents are out of town. And she says, nobody's supposed to be upstairs. And I say to her relax, Ash, we're just taking a little tour and walk off.

Hey, guys, Bobby Bones here today on the Bobbycast. I'm hanging out with Milo Ventimilia, actor, director, producer. I know him mostly. is Jack Pearson on This Is Us, but also he was on Heroes, he was on Gilmore Girls. Heck, he was even Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The dude's awesome. Like, I really enjoyed this. I had never met him before.

And he's in a new movie. I can only imagine, too, where he plays Tim Timmons, and Tim actually lives in Nashville, and it's pretty cool because Milo's in Nashville, we're recording this. But I can only imagine two. In theaters, here he is, Milo Ventimilia. I often try to find the three questions. I think people are asked and not ask them. Okay.

But I want to see if I can guess the three questions that you get asked the most. Okay. And you don't have to go into a full answer, but just going to make a quick answer. Question number one. How did you feel about the ending of This Is Us? I thought it was wonderful.

I know that Dan Fogelman, we prepped for it ahead of time. He knew exactly what he wanted to do with the end of This Is Us. at the beginning of season three. So we still had three, well, four to go, if you count season three, four, five, and six that we had to plan ahead because we needed the kids at that age. So the last episode, you know how it flashes back to when the kids are small. And like they had already at that point aged out and their voices are cracking and they're like, they're well into like teenagers. Couldn't capture them and film them again. So he knew he was ahead.

And what I thought was beautiful that Dan did was he shifted from, you know, kind of centering Jack around the family. And then by the end, you realize, oh, wow, it's about mom. And like this journey that we'd been on with this family and these kids and about mom and where she's going, I just thought it was a beautiful love letter to like the strength of women out there and what they experienced and go through. And I know Dan lost his mom, and I think that was a pretty big impact. I think that might have been a gift for her changing the perspective or shifting, shifting the perspective of the family and the point of view and what the impact of mom and mom's death and all that was.

And, you know, again, like Dan just knocked out of the park. I thought it was a beautiful thing to live in that world of Ron Seifas Jones. God bless and rest his soul. Now, being a conductor on the tree. train and Mandy Moore's character going through and not knowing what's going to happen. And then, hey, there's Jack right at the end. And then jumping back into all the points of view of the adult kids, seeing Sterling, seeing Justin, seeing Christine, what they're experiencing.

And then, you know, jumping to them as children with Lonnie and Parker and McKenzie and Mandy and I. And then just kind of like going out on like that last little beat with the camera just shifts from young Randall to Jack. and then boom, out black. Is that one of the top three questions you get asked? No. Okay, good. The other one, I'm sure you could ask a lot. And you can abbreviate the answer.

I have to think everybody goes, hey, your first job was on the fresh prince of Bel Air. Yes. Top question. Do you dread answering that question? No, not at all. I don't care. It's fine.

I mean, there's a lot of different ways to answer it too. And yeah, that was like my first, like, real credit. I was 18. I was going to school at UCLA. I got a phone call saying, hey, this job you audition for, you've got a yes to be on Fresh Prince of Bel Air. I remember my childhood friend, Aaron Steger, we shared a room. We room together in an apartment.

And I remember, like, getting the phone call early in the morning and his bed is there and my bed's here. I'm like, dude, I got the job. He's like, you got the job. I'm like, cool. What are we going to spend the money on? Like, we're going to buy a VCR. What are we going to buy?

This is so cool. What was the role? I played party guest number two. Oh, that was what is credited as? Party guest number two? Yeah. Ashley was having a party. and my role was I walk down the steps with a girl in my arm

and Ashley runs up to me as this party's happening while her parents are out of town and she says nobody's supposed to be upstairs and I say to her relax Ash we're just taking a little tour and walk off. The best part about it was it was 1995. I had overalls on, my hair was parted in 1995. I had a shirt that was open, that was vintage. I'm like, oh man, I'm so 90s.

This is rad. Doc Martin's on, just, you know, living my best 95. life. But that being my first job gave me the opportunity to be around the movie star Will Smith. And what I saw on that set was kindness and inclusion. From him. From him. Which I think are important lessons to learn it for a young actor. It is not about you. You're there as a community. You're there as a crew. Will knew everybody's names. Embraced everybody. I was a kid who had one line. He came up like walked up to me, not in passing, but walked up to me. Stopped to talk to me for probably five or six minutes, felt like about 20, asking me questions about myself. Oh, I was going to school,

cool, where was I from, and things like that, and thanking me for being on his show. And I think that set me in a direction to make sure that every set that I was on, hey, be like Will Smith. Just like be inclusive. Be cool. No people's name. make this a very warm place for people to be, make it a safe place for people to be. And I learned that from Will early days. Dang, that's a great answer. Thanks, man. The third one, do people ever go, how do you say your last name?

All the time. I've heard your name said, but people often say it differently. And there's no G, how do you say your last name? Ventimilia. Okay, so there's no G. Like I said. Yeah, G's silent. But, like, I mean, you look at any kind of like, you go to Italian restaurant, Taliateli,

not tagliatelli, but also it's geographic, it's regional. You're from, like, New York, you're from Staten Island. You're going to say tagli-Italy. You're going to say things a little differently. It's like, I got in a car the day, the guy driving me, he talks about pasta vajol. And I was like, bro, I'm like, where are you from?

Pasta Vajol? Like, I know what that is. That's a bean soup pasta. Like, that's the best thing in the world. My grandma, Nani used to make that. That's incredible. I'm never offended by it. I realize it's a difficult last name.

when I was a child, like playing like Pop Warner football, running on to a field, you know, in this like big and important game, all these kids are getting their names announced. And as I'm running on, you know, I get Milo Ventima or whatever. I'm not offended. It happens. My first name, people call me Milo.

And I'm like, no, it's Milo. You know, it is what it is. But the nice thing about having a long, difficult last name is I've got a short, not as difficult first name. And so kind of in town, I'm able to be like, if you just say Milo, people are like, oh, that's him. They know who that is.

It's not like James Ventimilla. There's a ton of Jameses, you know. I think when that kind of popped, they put the sign up. Okay. Now it's got bullet holes in it. It's a hole. Was it like a city council kind of thing? Probably.

I just know they... Yeah, no problem. I was dropping on the ground. We hadn't Gina's good. Thanks, man. Yeah, I was going back and it was a surprise. Okay. It's super cool.

But they have it when you're in. And then we were building the studio. Yeah. We were doing the deal with Netflix. and I was like, man, we need something that's like, so we asked them for the design of the sign in order. Oh, cool. Yeah.

Did you ever find out who, like shot holes through it? Probably a little bit of everybody. There's only 700 or 72 people, so probably there's everybody on town. You can knock on every door and be like, hey, what caliber is your favorite? Birdshot. It's a lot of bird shot. Oh, got it. Oh, so long gun, okay.

Fun. Yeah, where I come from, nobody's shooting handguns. No pistols. No, it's all shotguns. Wow. Like racks in the back of windows of trucks? Oh, yeah. We would leave.

Are you rolling, Mike? This is fun to talk about anyway. Do, by the way, this is the best guy of conversations? When I was in high school, and I graduated in 98, so, but we would leave for two reasons without ever having to check out. One, if the trout truck drove by, are you familiar with the trout truck? No. So we would, I'm from a very rural town, and so the game of fish would stock trout.

And so you'd see the truck drive by, and it'd be loaded with trout. And so we would just jump on our cars and drive down. And since they're stalking them, you're just yanking them. Really? That. And then everybody had guns in their cars and trucks because, especially during hunting season. Yeah, sure. Just leave.

You got to be ready. Or you came to school late because you went early and you don't go home and drop your 12-gay job. We did the exact same thing in Orange County, California. I know it. I'm going to say that's probably not true. But, yeah, obviously it was a different time then. But, yeah, in rural Arkansas, those are just tools. Yeah.

You know, but everybody had shotguns in their car all the time because you came from the woods or you went to the woods after school or a fishing pole. Yeah. Did you fish at all? Ever? Once. I think I might have been, I might have been in high school and it was more like out in the ocean and I went on a boat and I didn't do so well on boats back then. And I remember before I went, my dad told me to take a dramamine and I didn't take a dramamine. And so I spent quite a bit of the boat ride out on the ocean, which, you know, was up and down.

just not really looking at the ocean. That's tough. I had a show on Nat Geo for a while, and one of the things that we did was we went out, we were spending time with a guy who, he was a career halibut fisherman, and so we went to San Francisco, and the only time I'd ever seen Alcatraz,

but we go out that way, and we go out like five miles, and he's in a small boat. I get motion sick in an elevator. Got it. Being on a small boat like you're talking about, I vomited so much. It was to the point where I was vomiting nothing.

It was just me going... Bile. It's the worst. Like screaming. I would lay down and just do this until they said, we need you. You got to give us five minutes. Stand up, shoot the scene. So here's something really quick.

Good tip and trick. If you don't have Dramamine or like a mechalazine patch that goes behind your ear ahead of time, pressure points. On the inside's your wrist, either side. You can sit there and squeeze the heck out of your wrist on either side. and it should help you to bridge the gap of when you're having motion sickness. Why do you think that is? I don't know.

I don't know if you studied like Eastern medicine. I would say like, yeah, Eastern medicine or something like that. It was just, it was something that I feel like my dad, my dad has Meneers, which is like a deep inner ear. I don't even know what it's called, like what really the condition is. But my dad, his cochlear or something, the fluids in there just kind of flip. And he gets just knocked down. You know, it's almost like somebody has a migraine.

like a really bad migraine. They just wanted me in a dark room and just like have nothing around. So my dad had this issue, like his entire life. And I think he was always trying to find remedies and things like that and just pressure points. It really weren't. It did.

The only time I tested it out, I was on a flight to Hawaii with my wife, and she's watching a documentary about Hawaiian culture and she's from there of Hawaiian culture. And I was just trying like not to vomit our breakfast and I didn't have any drama of me and I'm trying to be present and I'm just in there just grip and it's just turbulent and it's moving up and down here to bad air pocket or something and I'm just holding holding for dear life onto my wrist just as hard as I could like when the flight

was over I was looked down and just just the deepest pit of my thumb going straight through yeah pretty much you get sick on a flight that it was I think it was just circumstantial with with with that flight, it doesn't happen all the time. It actually, I used to be really good with flights. Boats were like not as much, but I could manage to handle it. But then I spent a bunch of time with the Air Force Reserves and I went up at an F-16. And what we were doing in that jet actually tipped the scale to where like the smallest of things, like sometimes an elevator or a car drive and like, you know, bananas.

I'm curious about that flight. I went and flew with the Blue Angels once. Yeah. I would never do it again. I'm so glad I did it. Sure. And both can exist. Yeah.

And they called and said, hey, we're coming to town. We're selecting someone from your city. We think based on da-da, we like you to do it. As an immediate, yes. Of course, because it's an experience that is not often offered to anybody. And you're like, cool. I'm in a position to go do something cool that I would never get to do in a million years. Like, I'm going to do it.

Can't pay for it. Can't pay for it. Well, there used to be a program with American Express. If you got a million points, legit, a million points, you could go fly in whatever particular kind of jet. I was like, man, I'm going to save up for that.

And then, yeah, it never happened because it's like you need a million points on addicts which costs a lot of money. So you could kind of pay for it back in the day. But also, you can't pay for it. Yeah, it's one of those like invited experiences that are just priceless. I was nervous.

I'm not a big fly. I don't like flying, but I do. And they put the little suit on you, except it's not an anti-G suit. It's literally. just a bow constrictor overalls. Well, yeah, you're in, you're in like a jumpsuit, like a car mechanic. And then the G-suit. I didn't have a G-suit. You didn't have a G-suit? No, that's their pride thing. They don't wear a G-suit. So there's no G-suit. Yeah, but they do this for a living. You don't.

But nobody had a G-suit on. Why didn't they give you a G-suit? Exactly. Do they teach you how to chirp? So, I don't know what that means. Okay, so chirping is a way of breathing when you're in a fighter, a fighter jet. But you're basically, so the idea really quickly, gravity, gravity is going against you. And you need to stay awake and keep blood in your heart and in your head when you are flying in under G force. Or you will get G lock, which means you're just going to pass out. That happened to me. But yeah. Exactly.

So it happens that all of us, all of us civilians, man. It always happens. But a G suit is like a boa constrictor. So it's from your sternum all the way down to your rib cage and then wraps around your legs. And the idea is under 1G, 2G, 3Gs, which is equivalent to your own body weight being forced on top of your blood system. Your G suit is filling up, compressing everything, keeping all the blood out of your extremities and in your heart and in your head. Is it compression? It's like a compression suit.

But it's, I mean, it literally feels like you're being strangled by a bow of constrictor. But on top of that, you have to learn how to chirp, which is the style of breathing that is basically same thing that your suit is doing, which is forcing all the blood up into where you need it, your heart and your head. So it doesn't stop and you don't pass out. And so, like, I mean, this was the, the Blue Angels might have been different. Air Force Reserves. These guys ran me through the program, Tommy had a parachute, all this stuff, how to fly the jet, everything. Everything I need to know about an F-16 was told to me ahead of getting into the jet and, going up on a flight. What's the actual physical chirp, though?

Because I just... The physical chirp, you're basically... Lamage. Yeah, I'm doing... Yeah, you're doing Lamage right now, yes. 100%. Boom. There's a child, yeah.

Did you feel like that helped you? I think it did, but I still hit, I think, 8.5 Gs before I finally succumb to that and passed out. And I absolutely vomited. So when I went up in the jet, just overalls. Yeah. Or whatever they are.

Dude, you're a stud. No, I'm not because I get in and what they taught us was it been different where it was, you have to shove your feet into the ground so hard to keep the blood up.

God. And he would tell me, because I'm a novice, right? Rookie novice. All right, we're going to hit two Gs, three Gs. Yeah, and they start telling you. Yeah, yeah.

Push. And so I'm pushing as hard. hard as I can. Oh man, did you, did you poo yourself? I didn't poo myself. They told me to do it beforehand. Okay, good. I probably would have, but they were like, you need to use the bathroom.

And I was like, I'm going to already peeed. They were like, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You need to make sure that everything. And so I remember when we were hitting like three or four Gs, I would start to see the bottom of my eyes get a little black. Great, yeah. Just a little.

Yeah, I'd go gray. When we hit, you see me in the video, I couldn't, I was pushing back as hard as I could. Yeah. It was overtaking me. there was a point where my eyes were wide open and it was all black. I was still conscious. And you heard.

Yeah. Except I couldn't see anything. And then you see in the video, Migo. Yeah. And then we're tumbling and I'm just doing it. And then I come back a lot over and I'm like, oh, God. Dude, I had the same thing. My pilot, his name's Duke Boy.

That was his call sign. And as we're like pushing Gs, I hear him count them out, count them out, count them out. And I see the worlds go gray, gray, gray, gray, gray. And then I snap back and I hear him saying my name. Milo, you still there? I'm like, yeah. Oh, yeah. No, I'm still here.

And he goes, good. I heard you stop breathing. Like chirping, because I was chirping all the way through. And we got to eight and a half G's. And then I was like, I'm done. I'm tapped out. Why were you doing that? Was it for a role?

No. No, the actors just kind of get to do cool things. That's a cool thing. That's a cool thing. Yeah, no, I do a lot of work in the military space. I do a lot of work with Gold Star families. So families that lost loved ones in combat. Do a lot of work with active duty.

veterans. But that was just one of those things that got invited to spend some time with the Air Force Reserves at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. And they're like, look, you know, put you up in an incentive flight. What's that mean? You basically just to get to go in a jet and go for like a second seat ride. You have credit card. Carrag points. Yeah. American Express points. No, no, I didn't use my points. I hung on my points for like other vacations. But no, they just, I just got invited to go spend some time with these like all. awesome men and women that, you know, serve the nation and do it on the reserve side and teach other nations like fighting skills of the F-16 and other far more superior jets.

That's crazy. Yeah, it's pretty cool. I mean, and also, I mean, like, dude, like, been on aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf, like Iraq, Afghanistan and stuff, just kind of there to, like, serve the community, the military. Did you jump? I jumped with the, I think they're called the Black Dagger's Army Special Forces at Fort Bragg. Yeah, that was fun.

Yeah. But also, too, you're kind of like, you're strapped to Captain America and you're like going out of plane. You're like, what's going to go wrong? That's how I felt in my flight. Yeah. You know, I'm in a Blue Angel. And again, I don't like flying southwest. It's not about Southwest.

I don't like flying. But I'm up there with the best of the best. Yep. And so there was a comfort in that. When I got out of the plane, I was sick for eight hours. I laid on the floor in the room for a while. And then I was just humiliated. They had to look at me.

And where were, where did you do your flight at? Like 30 minutes from here. Oh, God. So he's always like in town. So you just like, hopped into a car. Still couldn't get home. No, I laid on the floor for a...

Really? To drive there and then I laid in the floor. And then I laid in the floor in the bathroom, which was disgusting. Sure. Then I went to my car and leaned the seat back and did that for about an hour and then finally got home. Yeah. It's a rough one.

I was in Arizona, but then I had to fly to Vegas for something. And I got onto a Southwest flight. And I remember as we were like landing and descending and I'm by myself and I kind of like lean to the person next to me. I'm like, this is not even like a half a jeep. Like, thinking I'm all high and mighty. Like, I just passed out at eight and a half jeep. Like, the quarter, gee, this is ridiculous.

What was your jumping out of a plane experience? So I was over at Fort Bragg, spending time with Army Special Forces, Usa Sok over there. And, you know, they just, the good thing about the military community, like, they pull you in and they want to show you all of the cool stuff that they do, but also just really immerse you with the troops. And the guys and gals are in a uniform that, collectively serve. And so, I mean, you know, I would be there like running programs with those guys where, you know, we're blowing doors off of hinges and clearing rooms and stuff all the way to watching life-saving field medic skills on, you know, another soldier who's just, you know, pretending to be wounded. And then, you know, they were like, hey, do you want to jump? And I was like, yeah, of course. Never done it before in my life.

They just say, do you want to jump? Yeah. Yeah. Hey, hey, do you want to blow? Here's some explosives. Go take the door off of those hinges. Hey, here's a rifle. Go, you know, shoot long distance. Hey, here's a parachute. This guy's going to strap you in it.

Just jump out of planet. I'm like, okay. Cool. Here's a jet. Go fly in it. Cool. Do you chase? No.

Adrenaline? No, absolutely not. I mean, and now being a father, really not. Really not. Like, I've had a wonderful lifetime of it. gave up my motorcycles, have no interest in going headstrong into anything like that, and to have made it out the other end

with all my arms and my limbs and feeling pretty good and my sanity and my mental acuity, I'm kind of like, I'm good. Have friends that became successes, and they were like, I'm bored, I'm going to be a pilot. You ever have that itch? Not so much out of boredom, but like curiosity. Like I always have a curiosity to be like,

that's a rad practical skill. Maybe I'll go do that. Yeah, flying, piloting, flying a helicopter, anything, even down to like boxing or language. I got, I don't say I got so bored, but I got so in tune with what I was doing with like being behind a camera directing and producing and being front of the camera acting. Then I'm like, okay, cool, I get it. I understand what my scope of work is. Let me do something different with my brain. So I went back to school, started with three languages. that was too much to do with a full-time, two full-time jobs running a company and being on a show. And then I was like, let me just back down to one. And I just went to school because I'm like, I got to do something different with my brain.

Not out of boredom, but just out of like curiosity, you know, keep it active. Do you know other languages? Not well anymore. That was, that stretch started with Russian, Spanish, and Japanese and realized that those languages were too much. So I backed off on the Russian and Spanish. and just stuck with Japanese for like two years. Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. You can have opinions.

You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program. I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. We share stories and scientific insights. to help us all better navigate these periods of turbulence and transformation. There is one finding that is consistent,

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What Coogler did that I think was so unique. He's the writer-director. Who do you think he is? I don't know. Do you meet the like the president? You think Canada has a president? You think China has a president? the law cruzette.

God, I love that thing. I use it all the time. I wrap it in a blanket and sing to it at night. It's like the old Polish saying, not my monkeys, not my circus. Yep. It was a good one. I like that saying.

It is an actual Polish saying. It is an actual Polish saying. Better version of Play Stupid Games, win stupid prizes. Yes. Which, by the way, wasn't Taylor Swift, who said that for the first time. I actually thought it was.

I got that wrong. Listen to the Nick Dick and Paul show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back on the Bobbycast. What do you consider your first major yes? Um, I mean, I had a few definitely ahead of Gilmore Girls.

Um, you know, early days of like building a resume and whatnot and like working in town and being kind of a working actor. I hit early. 21 was the last time I had like a job job. What was that job? I was selling snowboards at a snowboard. shop. And then just before that, I was waiting tables at a restaurant in Brentwood, California. But I'd done a few shows for Warner Brothers. They put me under contract, like paid, hey, you're held. You work for the studio now. I was like, okay, I guess I don't have to have a job job,

because this will pay my rent, pay my meals, things like that. But then I think Gilmore kind of put me on the map. Beyond that, I was still kind of like working, working, working. a bunch of Warner Bros. shows, a few universal shows. And then I did heroes, which put me, like, above the map, where it's kind of like, oh, I went from, like, known in the industry to known globally with heroes. Could you feel that? Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely feel the shift of, you know, industry to being out on the streets and someone like just running up to you and sobbing or, you know, want a photograph or an autograph back in the day. You feel it. energetically. And then it was, I think this is us that hit like a whole other stratosphere.

And even like, you know, along the way, you have things like Rocky Balboa or, you know, a couple of movies Adam Sandler, or a movie in Nicole Kidman, or Jennifer Lopez. And like, there's these little, like, kind of hits that are happening. You're like, wow, I'm with some pretty prolific people. And when I'm on set with them, we're doing the same job and their lovely human beings Adam and Jennifer and Nicole and you're like

oh I get it. I know this it's a job but also I'm in a very fortunate position to work with legends that I get to learn from and then also pass on to like younger actors and things like that. I feel like there are only a few shows

like in my lifetime where I can remember kind of where I was in my life I think music does this to me too where I can hear a song again and I go oh I remember exactly where I was. when this song became like a song.

Sure. And I'm not just saying this because you're here, but when this is us hit, that was one of the last, I feel, at least for me, one of the last cultural network phenomenons. Totally. Do you feel that? Yeah, absolutely.

It was so big, so fast. And we knew it going in. We knew the impact it had because I think it impacted us on the inside, that we're reading the scripts and a part of this beautiful show that Dan Fogerman put together. But you never really know.

right? No, I mean, you don't know if it's going to be a hit. What you do know is this made me feel something. This made me feel something. And that is what we try and do as artists. If we can feel it, hopefully someone

on the other side of a movie screen or a television screen can feel it too. Like, that's the job. You know, that emotional vulnerability, that emotional connection. That's what we do for living. We're emotional professionals. but you don't know the successes with it. It could be like the most feel, feeling show ever, and nobody watches it.

It just, that's how it goes. But to get them both the same, we're like, we on the inside, we're feeling it, and then everybody in the outside is feeling it, and then it just kind of kept going and going and going. I think it was also this moment in the world that people needed something like that. They needed family and community and to understand. that we're all going through some times and we kind of need to open the valve of communication and understand and recognize our differences. And I think visitors us gave that to audiences to

take into their own lives to actually make their lives more connected and make their lives more validated in a way sometimes. And we hit so many different subject matters, you know, but without trying or preaching it or saying this. It didn't feel forced. You're right. No, you know what Dan Fogelman and all the writers do, did was they were able to take a point of view and then shift like just two or three degrees one direction and just show it from a slightly different angle, slightly different lens. And then you're able to really understand something and then take it almost as a lesson to apply it to your own life, which I think is a wonderful gift as artists. You know, you get to like, hey, we're handing this to you to do what you will with it. Was that an audition? Actually, that was.

That was an audition, and that was a yes. Did you audition for the role that you ended up getting? I did. So when I read the first script, I was like, wow, man, I think maybe I'm, am I more Kevin? I'm like, but I don't think I'm a Kevin. But then they wanted me for Jack. But it wasn't that they wanted me. They just said, hey, you know, they want you to read for Jack.

And John and Glenn, our directors, John Requa and Glenn Fekara, we had some common ground with a good friend. Dan Fogelman, who created the show, we had Common Ground with The Good Friend. And so I walked into a very warm room. And on the page, Jack Pearson, which was not named Pearson in the pilot, he, as Fogerman likes to say, didn't look like me. Like I was off my motorcycle, was holding my helmet, walking in, you know, had a conversation. Like, I'd never met Dan. I knew, no, actually, no, I'd never met John and Glenn either, our directors.

we just all knew of one another and had like friendly, friendly connections. And so we just kind of were talking about the people that we knew. And then they were like, our cast director, like, okay, so you want to read? I'm like, yeah, cool, let's do it. I'm not pulling pages out. I'm not there to like read lines. Like, I already have this in my head. And they were like, oh, I'm like, yeah, no, I'm ready.

Let's go. And we just start doing it. And we do like a take. And I kind of glance back at the end of it. And I see dance sitting like a little boy about to open a bunch of presents at Christmas. It's just this big smile on his face. And I'm like, okay, I think that went pretty well. I walk out by the time I get back to my motorcycle, like, I get a call from my reps for like, hey, they want you.

And I was like, oh. That quick? Yeah, it was that fast. It wasn't like when you do a chemistry. We need to. Well, it was, they want you. But of course, like, you know, for studio purposes and network purposes, like, they're going to have a couple backup guys. They are.

But now, Milo, you're the person to beat. The creatives all want you. They would like you to read with other actresses to play your TV wife. So Mandy Moore was in there and then I think three, two or three other actresses were in there that I read with. And so they just pulled me into the process. And I think they were also testing out the waters. And they had an idea about other actors. Like I think John and Glenn had worked with Sterling and Fogelman knew him.

So it was kind of like they were obviously. Highballing Sterling. They didn't have Chrissy Metz yet, who's local and wonderful here in Nashville. They didn't have Justin Hartley, who's, I mean, that guy was such a talent, one of the best actors I'd worked with her scene. And they didn't have Mandy and I. It kind of had ideas, but then I think I was the first one. They're like, okay, cool, this guy's going to anchor the family. He's the patriarch.

He's the dad. And then once they saw what Mandy and I were doing together, like, oh, wow, there's my mom. there's mom and dad, got the two of them. I think at that point, Sterling came on, and then brought Justin and Chrissy, and it all made sense and took shape. That show was a phenomenon. Yeah.

Like really one of the last, because it's so fractional. Now, everybody has somebody that's super famous to them that somebody else has never heard of. Okay. Because I could, you know, there's a guy I watch on TikTok named Anatoly who does jokes and is a power lifter,

and I'll mention to my friend, no one's ever heard of them. Okay. Like, fame is so fractional. Now, I feel like that was like one of the last things where everybody knew it. It didn't matter where you were from. It didn't matter. It represented a version of all different kinds of people.

Without forcing anything down your throat, it was actually inviting you to just watch these stories of people offering you to connect with what they were living through, which was, I think, again, like, the most wonderful thing about being an artist. Like, that's what you want to be a part of. Even to me, like, that's what I feel like I can only imagine two is doing. You know, it's, you know, has an audience because the first film was, like, incredibly successful. But I think it also, it opens his arms and says, hey, here's a story and here are some people we think you might relate to. Why don't you come join us in this and, like, see what you can take from it?

There's a guy that I see on TikTok. He is Japanese. He speaks English wonderfully, but he goes to people. And he says, hey, I know your language. what is it? And just people walking through. And it doesn't matter, Farsi,

Mandarin, he knows every language. It's the wildest thing. Some people's brains are obviously. See, that's incredible, man. I wish I had that skill. I mean, even just think about the practical use of it.

Communicate. Just communicate with people to understand somebody on the other side and like maybe we'll find more common ground if we actually realize just how similar we all are, not to get, you know. What about accents?

If you're acting, so to more practical talk about what you do for a living. Not just random conversation. Well, no, that's the best stuff, honestly. You're right. Like, the best stuff is when you're just talking about stuff that you're passionate about. But that puts me into the space of, have you ever had to do an accent and train for an accent and stay in that accent for an entire duration of a shoot? I can't say there was anything too targeted or specific.

But, like, sometimes, you know, you throw a little nuance into something like working in Boston. and you don't want to pack the cat, half a yard. But like, you kind of throw a little something in there, little New England, more than anything. Or playing a character who's maybe a little more traveled. It's like enunciation, pronunciation, things like that to kind of, like, factor in. I think talking about accents and talking about the current film coming out, I can only imagine, too. Tim Timmons, he's a real person. He lives here.

We know him. He lives here. You know him. He's a real human being. Like, my job is to give an honest existence, not performance, honest existence, representing this real human being who's living his life, who has a beautiful family, who has all these things. And I'm like, how do I sound like him and study and break that down? And like, I had a singing vocal coach that was getting me to my range, what I could do before they kind of married both Tim and my voices together. but then on top of it, I'm like, how do I actually talk like him?

Because he and I are very different. Even though we're both from Orange County, both group in the same era, both like there's a lot of common ground that Tim and I found in our conversations. But I had a separate dialect coach that I had to work with previously for like random jobs and whatnot. And found out she's as she's studying Tim and I never noticed, she goes, he kind of has a little bit of an overbite. She's like, it's so subtle. The second I was able to plug that into my Tim talk and, like, kind of just tip my jaw just a little forward on the front.

I was like, oh, wow, I could capture Tim and hang on to that as like bedrock, you know, foundation of performance. Again, I'm performing star of existence, you know. I would think it would be a different animal, too, to play somebody that's alive that you can still talk with versus either a fictional person, which there's no frame of reference. or a historic dead person because they can't go, that's not me. Yeah. And it's even too, like when we were getting into a head of production, Tim was like, hey, are you cool if I'm going to be on set? I said, yes, please as much.

And as often as you can physically be there. One, because I can bounce things off you. Two, you could tell me if I suck, do it differently. And three, just like comfort. I'm like, hey, man, I'm here representing who you are and I want to do it honestly. and as raw as I can, so please be there, please help me, please, like, walk with me with, you know, in this process. What about the music, the guitar part of it? Did you play already?

I mean, like, friends in high school, you know, I think in my 20s, I had a bunch of punk rock friends in Los Angeles and we, you know, thought we'd be a band, but no, never happened. So I'd kind of like play a little bit of guitar, like, by myself as loud as I could in my house. And then I was like, eh, you know, fun, but I never stuck with it. But for this, again, wanting to honor my friend Tim in the script ahead of me that Brent McCorkel wrote and Andy Irwin's directing those guys. I'm like, hey, let me put the work in. And so I had a buddy who was in music back in California named Nate White, Nate White Shark. He helped get my fingers moving again. And then I had a vocal coach to do the singing stuff, Eric Vetro.

And then I had Tim as like the best reference to be able to say. like, hey, my, you know, this is, this is how I'd play the song. This is like, these are the chords that I would use. And he would teach me like 12 ways to play one note. I'm like, bro, give me one way to play it. I don't need, you know, the 42,000 ways. And like, it's very fun to watch you do that, but like, help me, help me make it look real and good. So I were, I just worked at it. And I did all this too, like, with a newborn baby and on the road, like, out of my house because it burned down and all this stuff. And it was just like, all right, cool. Let me just throw myself my entire focus into making sure my family's okay and making sure I'm doing right by Tim.

Obviously, you're playing a guy that plays music and again, a guy that we know from being here in town. But depending on how much music you actually played, there's learning how to play guitar and learning chords. There's learning how to sing, but there's a whole other, and the monster of playing and singing at the same time. Yeah. Because that's something, I didn't know, where were you, did you already kind of have that with your background? Dude, absolutely not. I had zero, I had none of it. So, I mean, and Tim, he's so gracious, he says to me, like, whenever people were in company, people ask me about guitar, he's like, not only did Milo have to learn how to play four songs of his, sing, I played a kick drum with a heel tambourine and a harmonium all at the same time. And they threw the harmonium and the kick drum and tambourine in, like, a week before we filmed all that stuff. Like, what? But once I had the comfort of the guitar And not having to think about where things were going

Just that memory, that finger muscle memory Of where things go to play whatever note And the confidence to sing Also knowing that Hey, I got filmmakers that are going to look out for me My voice may not be as strong as Tim's But they're going to make sure that Tim's voice is very present And mold us together

What do you mean mold you together? So, okay, so John Michael Finley Who plays Bart Millard that dude's on Broadway. He's like mega singer, beautiful, wonderful voice. Like, he does that for a living. Like, I'm a straight actor. I don't have vocal in my bag of tricks.

I don't have guitar in my bag of tricks. Those are things I have to, like, strap on for whatever character I'm playing, i.e. timens. So when I said this to Andy and Brent, I'm like, guys, I don't naturally sing. How does that, how will that work for you? And they were like, well, are you willing to do vocal coach? I said, absolutely. So I got out with the vocal coach, worked on it, did the best I could, and got to a point where when I was laying down a scratch track with Andy and Brent

and Jeremy Redmond, who was doing the music on the movie, I went in for like the first recording and like gave him my old, warm my voice up, did the whole thing, sang into the mic in a little box room. And then I turned back and look at it. everybody and they're like, we're surprised. That was pretty good. You want to go again? I'm like, yeah. I knew it wasn't the same quality as Tim and it needed to be for the movie. So what they did was they took my voice and what I'd recorded and Tim's voice and what he'd recorded and they just put them together and they digitally somehow musically mold it together that it's both his voice and

my voice in there as this kind of combo hybrid Hollywood movie version of Tim Timmons. Do you feel like after this project you could elevate and do another music role? Or do you think you would want to go out and just do music? Like as fun side? I mean, right after this film, my wife and family and I, we drove straight from Nashville to Toronto to go do a complete opposite character than what I was playing with Tim. And we of course had, I think at that point, our daughter was four months old. My guitar went back in the case.

A guitar that was gifted to me by Tim and Andy, a maiden that he plays, which is just this beautiful, beautiful tool. Stayed in the case. I think I pulled that out once when I was on this job in Toronto, but I was like, man, not only do I not have time, I've done my job with this instrument and this role, and I need to kind of let it go for a moment so I could focus on where I presently was, which was the next job, this Netflix series, and I had to focus on that.

And even from there, like a drive from Toronto back to California, then up to Vancouver on a whole different role, a whole different movie for Netflix again. And, you know, it's like I kind of have to stay present where I'm at. So my own desire to even just pick a guitar up and just kind of like find those things that I was finding when I was in rhythm with it in in the filming of the movie. It just have to wait.

It goes to the back of the list. Have you had to embrace other skills doing your other roles? Meaning, like a snow skier, so you've got to learn how to slalom. Yes. No, like a movie I did a thousand years ago, literally like probably 27 or 28 years ago, was on the mountains and the character was a skier. And I grew up snowboarding. Had to learn how to ski.

Cool. Land of Bad. You know, big action film. I'm playing elite tier one, Army Special Forces. Okay, let me go train with those guys. Let me spend some time over there and, you know, pick up some like weapons skills and things like that. I'm sure if a role came up or I'm playing a ballerina. Hey, man, time to do some like toe points and things like that. And you just dive in and focus. That's the good fun and joy of being an actor, being an artist in that way. Like, I get to live another existence and soak it up so much. much that it's believable on camera, but I also don't need to necessarily hold on to it. And if I ever want to revisit it later in my years, like when I got some time, sure, I may. I may. Like, I still have the guitars. Cool. I may pick them back up. Yeah. It is cool to learn stuff. Yeah. And then also, not to be forced, but there's a pressure to learn it because your job says you should. I had to learn how to be a stuntman. I'm not a stuntman. And there's nothing

get on me this tough. What was the stunts that you were performing? So I had to be lit on fire. Oh, that's the one son I won't do. I was forced to do it. I didn't choose. Was it like, hey, your arm is here. We're going to do this portion of your arm?

It wasn't my face. Obviously, I'm great looking. It's the money maker. Yeah, man, you don't want to do that. You can't do that. But it was like the side of my body. Wow. And so I studied.

They jail you up? Yeah. Yeah. It's cold. It's in. Loud. At first, they're going, we're going, we're going to jail you. you're not going to feel anything, and they would just do it like on a part of my arm.

And now I would be like, oh, there's nothing to it. But then when they would have to put it out, they would all come rushing in like I was about to die. So then I started going, this must be way more serious than I think, because when it's time to put it out, like they're rushing in to cover me. So by the end of it, it was, we have this much time, you've got to run and do this. The fire was scary. The worst was falling off a house. Yeah. Because I had to be in control of how my body landed.

tumbled to a pad, a bag, or a line? It was more like, and it wasn't really a mattress, but it wasn't a full pad because it couldn't be high because it couldn't be seen. But it was a low pad. And I was on, it was probably 11 feet, which doesn't feel like it's, but that's high whenever you're falling backward off. Yeah, of course, you got to trust it. And if you don't tuck the right way, like you will hurt yourself. So it was on me to make sure that I didn't break my neck. It's something that it was not on me to do.

But I learned, and I had a real respect. Not that I didn't have a respect. I just didn't have the education to know I should respect stunt people as much as I do now after doing that. And when you're doing these roles like you're skiing, you're playing guitar, but you leave that with not only a skill set, but with a whole new respect of what people, what they're doing, that you probably knew what they were doing, but not what they were doing.

What's interesting to me is, you know, you look at like the big action films. And then you see the actors playing these roles. like delivering the lines, the face and all of this, and then to know that there's another human being behind that person, I'll say behind just because, you know, stunt performers are always hidden because that's the job, you know. They have the face and these guys and gals are like the real deal.

But then sometimes to see the actor kind of aware of the bravado of the stunts, you're like, bro, that wouldn't you. If people only knew. Yeah, that wasn't you. I left that with a real respect for stunt people. Yeah. Because it's not, nothing is completely safe. No.

Just generally speaking. And especially in that world, like, they have to do everything right to stay safe. And so, like, that was cool. The other thing that I did was I don't like heights. And I went over with a guy who cleaned, he cleaned high things, like high buildings and windows. But the top, there's a sky bridge over the Grand Canyon. Yeah. Which I hadn't been to, but he has to clean underneath it.

Oh. It's 4,000 feet up. Yeah. Yeah. So he's on a wire just... So I had to do that. Fun. And I thought, this is my new hero.

Yeah. Like that guy who does that every day, to him, it's nothing. Well, it's like you see Alex Honnold, you know, going up the side of El Cap or up, you know, Taiwan 101. Or Taipei 101. You're like, what? Crazy. You know, you have to have some...

I mean, that guy in general, he also has everything memorized. He knows every way up. It's a math equation to memorize, you know, 3,000 moves as you're ascending. Like, what? Like, that's the most, that's as impressive as the physical going up. Like, how are you, like, learning that dance rhythm, 3,000 moves all the time? How do you do with memorizing?

Pretty good, but it's like a muscle, you know, that gets flex. If you're doing push-ups every day, like, you're going to do them a little more effortlessly. For me, if I'm away from a set, it takes me away a ways, a little bit of time to kind of like get back into it. But for me, I got to be old school. Like, I read my lines. I write my lines. And I write them in certain ways. Like, I'll have my page, my script in front of me. I write my lines next to the line so I see them. And then I put that away. And then I get a blank piece of paper. And I write only my lines, like I'm writing, you know, a journal entry. And then I do it where I'm separating things out. And I just do it over and over and

over and over again. But I do that in the beginning of a job because that gets my muscle flex, my brain flexed. But then after a while, you know, you just hand me the page, you look and go, okay, cool, I got it. Because it's just you're there, you're in it, you know, you don't have to think about it. The Bobbycast, we'll be right back. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program. I'm Dr. Maya Shunker. A cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. We share stories and scientific insights to help us all better navigate these periods of turbulence and transformation. There is one finding that is

consistent, and that is that our resilience rests on our relationships. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live. We have to be willing to live. with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I feel like it was a little bit unbelievable until I really start making money. It's Financial Literacy Month, and the podcast, Eating While Broke, is bringing real conversations about money, growth, and building your future. This month, hear from top streamer, Zoe Spencer, and venture capitalist Lakeisha Landrum Pierre, as they share their journeys from starting out to leveling up.

If I'm outside with my parents and they're seeing all these people come up to me for pictures, it's like, what? Today now, obviously, it's like 100%. They believe everything. But at first it was just like, you got to go get a real job. There's an economic component to communities thriving. If there's not enough money and entrepreneurship happening in communities, they fail. And what I mean by fail is they don't have money to pay for food.

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Here, the Nick Dick and Poll show, we're not afraid to make mistakes. What Coogler did that I think was so unique. He's the writer-director. Who do you think he is? I don't know. You mean the, like, the president? You think Canada has a president? You think China has a president?

Those law crusette. God, I love that thing. I use it all the time. I wrap it in a blanket and sing to it at night. It's like the old Polish saying, not my monkeys, not my circus. Yep. It was a good one. I like that.

It is an actual Polish saying. Yeah. It is an actual Polish saying. Better version of Play Stupid Games win stupid prizes. Yes. Which, by the way, wasn't Taylor Swift, who said. that for the first time. I actually, I thought it was. I got that wrong. Listen to the Nick, Dick, and Poll show on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of IHard Media, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing. Math and magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. I'm talking to leaders from the entertainment industry to finance and everywhere in between. This seasonal math and magic, I'm talking to CEO of Liquid Death Mike Cessario, financier and public health advocate Mike Milken, take two interactive CEO Strauss Elnick. If you're unable to take meaningful creative risk and therefore run the risk of making horrible creative mistakes, then you can't play in this business. Sesame Street CEO Sherry Weston and her own chief business officer, Lisa Coffey. Making consumers see the value of the human voice and to have to have. have that guaranteed human promise behind it really makes it rise to the top.

Listen to math and magic. Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is the Bobbycast. We were talking about before you came in, the movie, which when this airs day one, the movie comes out tomorrow. But most people watching this on Netflix, the movie will be out. Yeah. Just so everybody kind of knows where we stand with the movie coming out.

Sure. Whenever you get a script like a movie versus if you're doing a television project or, you know, a series project, are there different rules on how much you can ad lib, if at all? It depends on your filmmakers. So it's not really movie versus television? No, no, not at all. I mean, honestly, it's your filmmakers. And I say filmmakers is a broad term. You know, it's whoever's behind the writing on a TV show, whoever is behind the writing and directing in a feature.

What about this project, first of all? This project, it was less about the words were so right that they stuck. Brent McCork was such a talented writer that the words stuck. I didn't have to search for them. I wasn't struggling with retaining the words because they just the rhythm of them, the cadence of them, the choice of them was right. And because of that, as I'm reading it, it's literally like, oh, cool, got it. It just sits in your head.

But the way Tim is, and you know Tim, like, Tim, I'm like, Tim, his brain is just constantly moving all the time. And he holds back on those things that he, his brain wants to, his brain wants to say, but his mouth won't allow him to. And so he and I would have a lot of asides where we'd find, I'd find little moments to go touch off script and add something that's very timons into the scene. But it was stuff like that. It wasn't like, there wasn't a whole lot of ad living that was happening.

It was just kind of like, well, this feels, more like Tim. And I'd kind of confer with him first. And I'd talk to Brent and Andy. And then I just kind of plug it in without John Michael or Sammy Dell or Ariel Kevall like doing, I'm sorry? You're rewriting. No, not rewriting.

I'm adding. Is that not a bit of supplement? You're supplementing the writing. Sounds like, yeah. I'm just trying to flesh it out. Yeah. Because there's like an interpretation. You jump out as an actor.

And I've been on sets before. Like, you cannot change a punch. a punctuation. If there's a period, you take a pause. It says street, you can't say road. If it says pop, you can't say soda. I've been on those jobs before. But also on that job, that one particular job, the words again, were right and you don't need to muck them up. You just have to get them right in the cadence that they're asking you to do, maybe not asking or telling you to do. And when you do it, you're actually a part of the vision of it and it becomes what it's supposed to be. What do you prefer?

Either or, man. I could dance in any of these halls. Doesn't matter to me. I think it's good to have filmmakers that know exactly what they want. I think it's good to have filmmakers saying, make some choices for us. Put your flavor on it. And like on this one, that was Brent and Andy. Those guys are like, hey, bring what you bring.

You know, like here's the framework. Like we're here. But they're linking arms with you then kind of like putting a thumb over you saying, do it this way. How do you feel about watching yourself back? It's way too critical. Last night at the premiere was the first time I'd seen it on a big screen, and Andy had been inviting me to see it on a big screen.

I only saw it on a screen just because, you know, again, like infant and daughter and busy work-life schedule, so I just didn't have a chance to hop into a screening room with him. But it was the first time I saw it on the big screen, and I was not as critical of myself. I could actually watch and experience what, movie Tim was going through and everyone else. Like all my friends on screen, John Michael and Sopje and Ariel and Sammy and Trace Atkins, my goodness, like I saw what they were living on camera from the moment I saw the film. But I always have a hard time with myself because like I'm in my head and my performance and you see how things are edited and you're like, wait a minute, is that the choice that I made? Is that, you know? But last night was the first time on a big screen. where I was able to not look at what I was doing and just let movie Tim exist.

And it was enjoyable and it was moving. And I really felt what Tim was going through. Is that personal growth that's allowed that? I don't know. I don't know if his personal growth are just, you know, something bigger than, you know, 70 inches at home. But where I could see maybe like a little more nuance or detail. Or maybe it's like that energy you get watching a movie in a theater with people. which I think is a powerful experience that is kind of lost in modern day or modern day,

but where we find ourselves in 2026. Everybody wants the comfort of their homes, which I get and I enjoy myself. But being in a theater, watching something with a group of people collectively, there's an energy you feel, and it's just different. So I kind of felt it last time, which was cool. Did you just have your first baby? A year ago. So we're about to have our first baby.

No kidding. Soon. How soon? Real soon. How prepared do you feel? I have the understanding that I cannot feel prepared. Yeah. And that I have done the things that would make me feel prepared if I could feel prepared.

But I feel like there is no being fully prepared. So that's why I'm asking you, you're in a time machine, you're a year ahead of me. Yeah. What's up? I would offer this. You can prepare, you can't plan because your plans will change. And by the way, like, your kid is in charge. pick up the four cues when they're babies of like what their cry means.

It doesn't mean they're hungry, uncomfortable, tired, or gassy. Are those different cries? They're way different cries. And all four are distinct. When they're infants, all four of those are so distinct. And if you kind of like paid, my wife is amazing. And she was able to coach me through these. She's like, she's tired.

I'm like, how do you know this? I'm like, okay, she's tired. Put her bed in my arms, whatever. She's asleep. We're like, she's hungry. I'm like, how do you know this? She's hungry. Give her a bottle.

She's good. I don't know. Women are incredible creatures that just inherently feel these things as mothers. And I will never as a father, like, really understand. But you learn as a dad. Yeah, beyond that. But like, you just can't plan. You have to prepare.

Because in preparation, you're ready for it. And then be flexible to be like, you know what? Oh, things didn't go the way I was thinking they were going to go. And babies in charge and taking us on a whole different direction. Cool. we're going to go this way. I would say, and I'm new with this, and we're just about to get into it again,

having the second one, but just love that kid and just be happy and know you're not going to sleep and know you're going to do everything you can for the rest of your life to just give to this kid and have fun, you know? Everybody would tell me like, I remember like my brother-in-law,

he was holding our daughter and you just see just loving his eyes and his kids my niece and nephew are you know uh late single digits you know double digits now and he just remembers so reverently that time when they're just babies and like right now i just try and like look at my daughter whether she's crying and upset in my arms and just sit there and just kind of look at her and observe her and be there and like try and connect with her or she's asleep and peaceful and laughing in her sleep like just I just stare at her. She's just, she's the coolest kid. So I'd say just get into it.

Soke it up, man. It's going to be whatever experience like you have with your child, but just enjoy it. Did you like the baby the first three to six months? Bro, it was so hard. So for my wife and I, my wife was nine months pregnant when we lost our house in California to the fires. Two weeks after that, our daughter was born. So we're in a rental house. and also I was prepping, I can only imagine, too.

The fire has actually popped off. I was on a Zoom with Timmons. First time we'd ever like talk, you know, face to face in a way. And there's a fire behind my house and we got to go. So we had a lot happening in those first, you know, let's say four months, lost the house, had the baby, traveled cross-country by truck and trailer because we got a hundred pound dog as well that we had to bring with us and, you know, get there safely. And got to Nashville, dove right in on this movie, which was just such a safe haven for me.

I mean, everything Tim talks about, you know, in the course of the film, you know, God was in the fire and just all this stuff. And holding grief and gratitude and, like, equal measure. It was very healing to be a part of. But also, you know, I wasn't necessarily thinking. about, oh man, I'm really not sleeping. And, you know, again, my wife allowing me to, like, go out and handle the mess of what the fires left us with and handle the art of what I have, I'm faced with in the music, in the performance, and all of that for the movie. And then also just the safety of the family, you know, there was just, there was so much. It was just hard.

It's a bit of a blur. But when I do look back on photos, and videos and everything. And like, typically at night, my wife and I will be in bed. And one of us will have our phone and we'll come across like a photo of our daughter from whatever time in the last year. And either of us would just kind of share it, you know, and talk about that moment her hair, her smile or her laugh or how pissed off she was. Any of that stuff. And like, it's just fun to revisit. But yeah, those first couple months are hard, man.

I get into the whole existential thing. Like, you know, the baby didn't choose. I didn't choose to exist. And all of a sudden, you're just thrust into existence and expected to figure out your path. You know the good news, though? Please, I need it because I started getting these existential dots. I'm like, I need some good news. Everybody's done it.

You're not the first one to go through this. You're not the only one to go through this. There's other people before us that have done it under worse circumstances and better circumstances. So you get to have this journey with your kid, which is wonderful and unique and yours. and your partners. And, you know, it's just, it's a beautiful and amazing thing. I mean, I had kids late in life. I was 48 when our daughter was born.

Yeah, I'll be 45. There you go. Yeah. You know, and it's different when you're a fully shaped human being. And as a man, like, you're out of point. You're like, now my life is good. And like, whoa, I didn't think life could change as drastically as it just has. But you know what?

I'm here for it. And I love it. And I'm into it. And I wouldn't give it up for anything, you know? That's crazy. You're 48 or 49. Like, you look like you're like 31. Thanks, man. What's the skincare routine? I'm moisturized and good living, I guess. Don't drink, don't do drugs, try and stay healthy, eat well. You're hitting the gym?

I have been recently. When we were doing this film, I actually had to back off on weight because I wanted to lean into the cancer journey that Tim was in. And also, too, like, I'd seen a whole bunch of just photos of him when he was in his 30s, which I was playing. that era. And Tim was just a thinner, trimmer, dude. And, you know, not that I live at a gym, but, like, I like to just stay healthy. And so I backed off. But now more recently, like, my next job coming, like I got to pack weight back on. So, yeah, hitting the gym and just eating right, like I said, moisturized, sunscreen, drink a lot of water. Yeah, the water. Yeah. It's the two fundamental things that should be the easiest or often the things we do not as much, which are drink, water, and sleep.

Oh, totally. Because we think, oh, we can always catch up on that. It's so easy to get water, if I'm not going to have sleep tonight. But those are, like, the two most important things. Totally. Like, I think my watch told me, I was like, oh, you're, you got four hours of sleep last night. And I'm like, I did. Like, so much so, like, I woke up this morning.

My daughter was on my chest. I'm like, wait, I don't remember grabbing her. What time is it? What time do I be up? Oh, okay. And I look at my watch and it was like, oh, yeah. you got four hours. Yeah, I've wore the aura ring.

Yeah, yeah, I saw. What I like about it is, if I wake up and I feel a little tired, and it tells me I got good sleep, I'll just be better. I'll be like, well, I have the data. But the problem is if I wake up and I feel pretty good, and it's like, well, you didn't get enough. I'm like, you know, I was thinking I am kind of feeling bad. I'll let it convince me which way to go.

So my wife wears an aura too, and she's the same thing. And I'm like, don't let it rule you. How did you? How do you feel? Yeah. But it's amazing, though, the influence something can have in our brain to make our bodies feel something. What if it's the other way around,

where we influence ourselves positively to feel good? Like there's something about that brain-body connection where we're able to really, and brain-body existence, where we're able to impact things. It's like you walk into a bad situation, think positively. You think positively about the situation you're going into.

It's like, hey, maybe things are actually going to end up on the right side. Maybe you won't feel as tired, you know? Like, I didn't get a great amount of sleep, But you know what? Got a little when I woke up and I'm here. Grateful for that. Yeah, I'm a big perspective guy. Yeah.

I'm a big, there is a way this situation could create something awesome for me, depending on the situation. So I'm a big perspective guy. I was recently talking about this with a friend of mine, and he had been through, he lives in L.A. It's a big television. He's hosted so many major shows. Okay.

I was talking to him about all the noes that he would get. And I think that's probably something common to... 100%. Because I would see you and I would be like, man, this guy's acted such high level, so many things. I know him from all these things. There's probably a no that comes to you. There's probably about... Well, depends on what point in my career.

Early days, probably about 99 knows before I get a yes. As years march on, maybe about 60, maybe it was about 40. Maybe it's 20, 10, 2. and then at a certain point it kind of ships over, things just show up for you. And it's not a no, but you're kind of like, I got through that. I got through those trials. I'm on the other side of it now. But still, it doesn't change my work ethic approaching it.

It's like, hey, I'm grateful to be here. May it be an offer, but I've had my nose, so I know what that feels like. So to be given a gift like this movie or a role or an opportunity, I'm like, oh, I've not only earned it, but I'm going to be grateful for this thing that's offered or put in front of me. And I'm going to put my whole heart into it. It's kind of like, you know, why spend your time of your energy on someone that doesn't want you, who doesn't want to be around you? You know, it's kind of like, you know, I tell like my God kids or things like that, you know,

they're teenagers. Like, that boy's not good for you. He's not giving you the proper attention. Why put your energy into him if, you know, or her if they're not giving energy to you. It's like, if there's people giving you energy, It's like, hey, pick up on that. Be aware of it. Perspective point of view, you know.

Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program. I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. We share stories and scientific insights to help us all better navigate these periods of turbulence and transformation. There is one finding that is consistent, and that is that our resilience rests on our relationships.

I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I feel like it was a little bit unbelievable until I really start making money. It's Financial Literacy Month and the podcast, Eating While Broke,

is bringing real conversations about money, growth, and building your future. This month, hear from top streamer, Zoe Spencer and venture capitalist Lakeisha Landrum-Pierre as they share their journeys from starting out to leveling up. If I'm outside with my parents

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They cannot feed their kids. They do not have homes. Communities don't work unless there's money flowing through them. Listen to Eating While Broke from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get. It's your podcast. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of IHard Media, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast,

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Listen to math and magic, stories from the frontiers of marketing on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. When you listen to podcasts about AI and tech and the future of humanity, the hosts always act like they know what they're talking about and they are experts at everything. Here, the Nick Dick and Poll Show, we're not afraid to make mistakes. What Coogler did that I think was so unique. He's the writer-director. Who do you think he is?

I don't know. You mean the president? You think Canada has a president? You think China has a president? The president, Levoix, Grouzette. God, I love that thing. I use it all the time. I wrap it in a blanket and sing to it at night.

It's like the old Polish saying, not my monkeys, not my circus. Yep. It was a good one. I like that saying. It is an actual Polish saying. It is an actual Polish saying. Better version of Play Stupid Games, win stupid prizes. Yes.

Which, by the way, wasn't Taylor Swift, who said that for the first time. I actually thought it was. I got that wrong. Listen to the Nick Dick and Poll show on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back on the Bobbycast. What did you take from this movie? I want to end with this.

What did you take from not only learning the story, but also being a part of the story? I don't know if it was taking as much, and I've said this before, but I truly believe it a little more of an affirmation of how I already lived, which is holding gratitude and grief together, understanding that two things

that are completely opposite, can actually coexist at the same time. And we have the opportunity with whatever is presented to us, whatever is put in front of us, obstacle, wall, whatever you want to liken it to, sickness and ailment, difficult times. You're able to get through it. You're able to get around it. You're able to just get through it in a way that will hopefully leave the place better than you found it. That's kind of always how I'd been and watching a man like Tim Timmins, you know, take such a difficult sentence as, hey, terminal cancer, five years, that's what you got. Turn it into this beautiful life of just giving and serving.

I think affirmed how I try to be without the cancer presence, you know. I like going into work in a room and just company, be like, hey, man, what can I do for you? How can I serve you? you know, so I think this film was very much for me an affirmation of, oh, I think I'm on the right path. I think I'm doing pretty good. Let me just keep in the direction that I'm going, knowing that, oh, there's other people out there doing the exact same thing. It's just labeled differently, you know. So that's kind of what I'm taking from it.

Or actually what I'm giving from it. Yeah, congrats on the movie. Thanks on the baby. And also, congrats on, as you were talking earlier. about Will Smith being that way. A lot of times, I'm not putting you in this, but I'll say Hollywood folks,

come in and have a different aura about them. All good. Yours was awesome. Thanks, man. It was extremely warm, and it was very instantly kind. And, you know, this is a business. Who knows if we ever see each other again?

And you know that too. But you were, yeah, just a delight off camera too. Thanks, man. So I want to say that on camera so people know like that. That's what you're saying there about that movie. I was thinking you actually do live that because when you entered the room, it felt like that with you. Oh, thanks, man.

So I appreciate that. No problem, man. You mind if I leave us with a quick Trace Atkins story? Yes. Can I tell one first and you tell a better one second? Please, go for it. Because I know Trace and have known Trace for a long time. And I saw Trace at the Grand Ole Opry.

We were both playing the show probably about two months ago. I was playing a little before him, but he was side stage as I was. coming off. I was telling some jokes, playing a little guitar song. Yeah. He's like, hey, them shoes you wear, those women shoes. And I said, very trace. Yeah, I said, they are not women's shoes. He goes, they should be women shoes. And so I said, now Trace, you know, I like to, like to dress nice. And he said, do you see these? And he had an old pair of boots on. He said, these are my favorite old boots. I said, a pair of Justin's. I said, what makes them your favorite? He goes, well, I recently almost died at him.

And so what happened? He goes, well, this is when he got shot through the heart? No, this is like, he was on a cane at the opery. And this is like three weeks prior. And I said, what do you mean? You almost died. Oh, this is when he fell. Yes.

He said, they were working on my roof. And I needed to get up there and see if they were doing a good job. So I got up there, climbed up to see if they were doing a good job. And the next thing I knew, I was on my back. But I had my boots on. These are my lucky boots. I'm here today. And he not only...

He might have said it probably a little more colorfully. He definitely did, yes. I know exactly the line that he used to make it more colorfully, which we won't talk about. So I made fun of my shoes. He then told me a funny story. And he ended it with... I wear these boots when good times here at the stage. And when I'm working out, when I'm working out at the house, and I'm in him tonight.

And it's just a total trace 360 in all ways. Trace is the best. He, uh, some, some, a quick little thing in line with Hollywood folk. I'm the outsider. on this set. Complete outsider. I'm from California. Y'all are Nashville.

So, we'll start with that. So I think Trace might have said to Andy Irwin, I don't know about this fucking Hollywood kid. I'm like, I'm actually not from Hollywood. In California. But he kind of like, and when I'd meet him, hey, Trace, hey, I'm Mila, nice to meet you. You know, just kind of grumbled.

And I'm like, Trace Atkins, it's cool, whatever. that after that first couple days of filming, I had to go to the guitar center in Nashville to go pick up a few things that I just, I needed for my guitar. And I'm at the checkout counter. And as I'm paying for my things, like at the end of the transaction, the gent behind the register says me, he goes, hey, do you want to donate, you know, a dollar or two, whatever to? And before he said, I'm like, yeah, sure, he goes to the Fire Relief Fund in California. I say, hold on a second, absolutely fucking not. Sorry for my language. Exactly, you're clear.

Okay, cool. I'm like, absolutely fucking not. And the guy looks at me and said, I lost a house. I lost two houses in that fire. I doubt I'm going to ever see a cent from Guitar Center. So no thank you. I would like to not donate money to my own house that I lost. And the guy was like, oh, okay.

And I'm like, and that was it. That was like my interaction at Guitar Center. I'm like, wow, where is that money going? And you started kind of like unwrapping those things. We're people like picking up off of the calamity of others, and this is horrible. So I go to work the next day. We're filming the big bus bonfire scene. Bus breaks down, you know, night under this overpass, and it's like cold is dark,

and I really hadn't had much interaction again with Trace. And he walks right up to me within his Justin's boots. I heard your house burned down. Mine burned down too. That was it. And like after that, dude, he was my boy. And I think he kind of figured, and he, and later on, I'm like, hey, what? And he goes, well, I heard your house, but I heard you told some sales assistant go fuck himself.

Because he wanted your money and your house burned down. And I was like, yeah, I'm like, Trace, look, man. I'm like, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't add up. It's bad math as Stallone would call it. You know, it's bad math. And he's like, I like that. Yeah, I feel like Trace is a guy who nobody gets the free pass or the benefit of the doubt.

but once there is an understanding of what everybody's about, like he is in. Oh, he's so in. He's in. And he's your dude. I mean, even last night, we're on, you know, we're on the press line and there's a bunch of was lined up and, hey, Milo. Hey, Trace, what's up, man? Haven't given you a hug yet.

Your wife leave you yet? Not yet, Trace. Okay. Let me know when she does. I'm like, okay, Trace. I'm like, she's the pregnant lady over there. I'm thinking she's in. We're together.

Yeah. But then later on, you know, it's like when like the quiet moment happens, you know, for a guy like Trace Atkins, who's lived a life that he's had and had, success that he's had to like just come up in like a quiet, intimate moment. He's like, how are you doing? How's things? How's your house? Like, you'm like, wow, dude, this guy is he, he cares so deeply. You know, and you're right. Like, once you're in, like you are in. Yeah, I love him. He's the best. I love him. I didn't, I didn't understand him at first, and he wanted to kill me at first. But now we've just done enough together. Now there's

an absolute understanding. Like, I'm the guy that wears the cardigan and he wears the cowboy hat and it's the cowboy. But it's like we both know we have very much the same. values with people. And that's what it is to him. I really appreciate this, Milo. I hope the movie does exactly what you wanted to do. Big fan of your work. Thanks, Bob. I appreciate me. Thanks for stopping by the show. Yes, absolutely, man. Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening to a Bobbycast production. Hey, I'm Dr. Maya Shunker, a cognitive scientist and hosts of the podcast, a slight change of plans, a show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change. We have to be

willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes. You can have opinions. You can have like a strong stance. And then there's your body having its own program. Listen to a slight change of plans on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. On a recent episode of the podcast Money and Wealth with John Hobriant, I sit down with Tiffany the budgetista Aliche to talk about what it really really is. takes to take control of your money.

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