The Checkup with Doctor Mike - What's Wrong With Sebastian Maniscalco?

Episode Date: December 20, 2022

Sebastian Maniscalco's new standup special "Is It Me" is streaming on Netflix now! Watch me and Sebastian play Medical Heads Up here: https://go.doctormikemedia.com/youtube/SebastianManiscalcoHeadsUp Sebastian Maniscalco is a world-class stand up comedian who has sold out some of the biggest and most historic venues in the world. He just released a new special on Netflix called "Is It Me?" which nearly knocked me on the floor I thought it was so funny. I invited Sebastian onto the pod to discuss his sciatic pain shooting down his leg. He's been on the road for 19 months and the pain is apparently getting bad, so we dove in deep to discuss it's cause and potential treatments. We also discussed fatherhood, how he felt being on Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld, the rise of illness in our kids' schools, and toxic masculinity. Executive Producer and Host: Dr. Mike Varshavski Produced by Dan Owens and Sam Bowers Art by Caroline Weigum CONTACT: [e-mail]

I saw you on comedians in cars getting coffee with Jerry Seinfeld. And I felt like you hated it. I didn't hate it. Sebastian Manascalco is a world-class comedian. Netflix specials galore has toured the entire world with his comedy skill set. We have a great podcast for you where we have a conversation about him being a hypochondriac. The value of having a Dio as your personal physician. He actually has a brand new Netflix special.

Is It Me? Live right now. I'll highly recommend you check that out. Let's get started. Be whoop. How's your health? I have sciatic pain running down my right leg. Right now. Yes.

It's not painful right now. It tends to act up and flare up after a night of sleep and throughout the day. It's been going on for a year and a half. Wow. And any successes with any treatments thus far? I, no. I have done physical therapy, not consistently, though. Okay.

I've done, uh, any, every type of massage you could think of. Sure. Copping. Uh, what's the pins? Acupuncture. Acupuncture. Uh, epidural. You had an epidural.

It's that bad. Twice. Wow. Nothing. And not helping. I have spinal stenosis. So is surgery on the horizon? I hope not.

Uh, I'm going to take care of this seriously after today because I've been on the road for 19 months. Wow. And it's time to correct my legs. Do you, so when you say correct your legs, you're having, like, muscle weakness? My right calf is, is fading. Fating. Wow. Why, can you help me?

I probably can. I'm going to promote the special. I might walk out of here with calf movement. What the, that's a surprise at the end of the episode. Calf movement. Love it. No, I'm an osteopathic physician. Have you ever seen a DO before or heard of a DO?

A DO? Yeah. There are two types of doctors in the United States, licensed, MDs and DOs. Okay. Same four years of medical school, same residency training. DOs tend to be a little bit more hands-on and holistic in their approach, meaning that they believe the body has an innate ability to heal itself, and our job is to not get in the way, but still give medicine, surgeries, all that stuff.

But that principle is more strong in our education. Although, to be honest, everything's merging now. Okay. Yeah. Like, it started off that way because if you rewind 100 years ago in medicine, the shoot MDs were doing because they were the only doctors, like bloodletting, creating blisters to heal infections. Like, you know, George Washington died because doctors were like, let's bleed him out, let's make him puke and shit, and we'll fix his pneumonia. And they said he died.

Wow, I didn't know that. So DOS came about and they're like, we need to chill. and that was the right approach. But now DOs have realized, hey, there's a lot of value in the MD philosophy and that's why the worlds are kind of coming together. Yeah, I kind of like the D.O. approach. I've kind of taken that unbeknownst to me.

I didn't know if it was a D.O. approach. I'm trying to do everything possible not to do surgery. Okay. Which is the right move, especially when it comes to spinal surgery. Not saying that spinal surgery is wrong in every case, but a lot of times people jump to it or they have an over-eager surgeon and I don't say that to denounce surgeons

but more so to say if you're a hammer everything's a nail or it's not so when surgeons see a problem and it's been kicked up to the high level of their specialty they say I got to operate and a lot of times it backfires and the results are not what patients thought it would be

the communication isn't there so I appreciate that you're trying to push this off and you've tried literally everything I tried everything, and the next time I see you, I'll probably tell you I had surgery. Good. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for that. Have you tried anything out of the box? Anything that traditional medicine would frown upon?

No. No. No. No. No. No. So you're not into that kind of. It's not that I'm not into it.

I just don't know what miracle potion would make my leg feel better. If you walk into any supplement store, they'll have a potion for you. Yeah, but like if you're suggesting that, oh, you have cyanideca in my refrigerator or on my counter next to my feathers, I have a beautiful, a beautiful potion you can take. Then I go, okay, what is it? And I'm surprised no one's pitched that to you. No. So you have a good team around you and good people.

Yeah, I kind of make my own decisions when it comes to my health. I don't, I, you know, I talk to people and I kind of come to my own conclusions. Well, like, you'll, what in your case oftentimes happens is people start going abroad and get questionable treatments, regenerative treatments, stem cells. I have no idea where those stem cells come from. Most of the people that get them probably don't either, but they're like Kobe Bryant did it, RIP. So they're like, if he healed his Achilles, maybe I can heal my knee. That's great if people are doing that.

Me, I come from a Sicilian family. Okay. When I hear I had to go overseas for something, I'm thinking, pause. Something's wrong. Okay. But I don't know that much about it to really comment on it. Okay. Well, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if 19 months on the road is a contributing factor, like, to the highest degree.

Yeah, this happened prior to me going. I woke up one morning, went to the bathroom, and a shooting pain down my road. right leg. Now, over the course of time, the pain has kind of migrated also to my left leg and my right calf has lost strength. So it's a little concerning for me. I have two young kids, five and three. And I don't want to be the daddy that can't run around with his son on the soccer field because, you know, he didn't take care of his body. So I got to focus now that the tour is over And hopefully, by the way, sidestep here, first time I've ever done a podcast with the host in socks.

Oh, no. No, no, no, no. It's not a bad, should I put on, not a bad thing. I can put on a crock. That's even worse. And the producer in slippers. I feel really overdressed for this, man. I come in a jacket.

You're coming from legit. television into a dude's apartment and people are in slippers that sucks oh it's great this is casual friday here on a well we want you to feel comfortable like you're at home just hanging out maybe we miss the mark no no no no no it's it's not i feel like i should you know take my jacket off your shoes or something by all means i wanted you to be comfortable if i do this in my socks i lose all creditability. Well, I know it's also hard to take off the shoes given your calf situation. Yeah, yeah, no, it would be a whole thing. I want to be respectful of the calf. Wow, okay, that was a good pivot. From, uh, oh, God, go ahead, go ahead. No, you were saying that you're from a

Sicilian background and you're, you have a different philosophy on health care. And I've heard you say in the past that it was maybe hypochondriac situation. Is that true? Constantly, It's gotten a little bit better now than it was before, but anytime anything happened to me, it was dire. Yeah. This is it. I'm dying. Oh, okay.

So like a fatality situation. Fatality. Okay. Why was that the case? Upbringing? My mother was always worried, always the worrywart, what's going on. We always had like a negative spin on what was going on. So if it was a cough or runny nose,

It was made more of, yeah, more of a deal than it actually should. And I've kind of adopted that philosophy now with my kids. So my kids get a cough or they get a, my daughter had pink eye. Oh, okay. That's it. She's going to be blind. You know, it's that type of mindset, not the right mindset to have. Especially with kids.

Yes. Thank God for my wife, who's a lot more calming and a little bit more go with the flow. Do you think your parents and you as parents, have swapped roles, meaning your mom seemed to be the warrior and now you're the warrior? Yeah. My dad was never the warrior. It's always been my mom and my sister's worse than I am. Wow. Okay. Yeah, I hope to kind of be a little bit more relaxed moving forward. I'm a little bit too. What strategies are using to get there? I've tried to meditate to be more in the present. And I haven't done that consistently enough to achieve.

what I'm trying to achieve. Yeah. And no excuses. It's just sometimes, it's like anything's with me. It's like, all right, I'm going to get in shape.

I do that for a while. I fall out of shape. It's been this back and forth, back and forth. I mean, that's human. Like what excuses? That's real life, especially with someone of your stature

and the time that you're spending and working on your craft. How do you balance that as a parent? Where you're like, I want to be there. I want to succeed. Which one comes first? How do I take a break?

How do I make sure the fire doesn't go out from the career? Because Hollywood stand-up fickle game, right? Yeah, it's been a struggle for me. Thank God for the pandemic, although the first seven, eight weeks of the pandemic was really difficult for me because stand-up comedy has been my outlet. It's been very therapeutic for me to get on stage

and share my thoughts with a group of strangers. And once that was taken away from me, I was like, oh, wow, I don't have that outlet anymore. now I did have two young kids and a beautiful wife to spend time with however you know doing work has always been kind of my salvation and once it was ripped away from me I had a pivot and struggle I had I was struggling yeah I'm not going to deny it I was struggling but silver lining there was I got to see things that I probably wouldn't have saw if I was on the road I saw my son take his first steps and I spent a lot of time with them but it is a something that i'm always thinking about i don't want this time to go past and i'm looking at my kids at 21 years old going what the hell was i doing in montana yeah when i should have been home so i made a conscious effort to say hey no more touring this is it uh not forever but for for for you know reasonable period for a time where I could spend some time with my kids maybe do some work locally

and some TV or film but for the most part I grew up with family being the most important thing and I want to also implement that in my life with my own family so yeah I'm always very conscious of it it's tough because the pandemic took away a lot of coping mechanisms we all had without knowing they were coping mechanisms for you it was work that was your outlet for some people who was looking forward towards the weekend and getting drinks with their friends when I remember when I was working long shifts in the ICU, I would say, oh, I can't wait for my vacation, even if it was six weeks away. But the pandemic took all of that away from all of us, and we had to create new coping

mechanisms. And some people thrived with new ones, and some people really struggled. So it was a really messed time, messed up time, especially for us in the hospital system, because we're looking, and it's like, how do you help people when the resources are limited? Our hospital beds are filled. There's no beautiful comedians helping us smile. It was tough. Did you try and find new ways to work from home, like do some kind of unique setup?

Yeah, I did, what did I do? Sunday supper. I did this thing with a chef friend of mine who was struggling, and I said, let's get your name out there because he also imports a lot of product. And I said, let's do a Sunday supper. You cook, I'll provide the entertainment. We'll sell tickets. We'll give the money to charity.

and we did it twice from that spawned a TV show that I did called Well Done on Discovery Plus So at the time I didn't think Oh, this is gonna be a TV show I just was helping a buddy We did it and boom We made it a TV show for 13 episodes

Also I did Zoom shows Not stand up Because I didn't want to sit there And do stand up in my living room It was more like this It was like a mediated conversation Where there was a guy asking me questions and you know over the pandemic it was we're going to send you a bar kit right and you're going to

make drinks and we're going to have entertainment so uh that's kind of what I did to make a little scratch during the pandemic sure but for the most part I was at home just bitching and screaming what is this thing going to end in the beginning you're like hate this love it and then by the end were you back to hate it? Yeah, I was kind of ready to kind of go. I think, listen, human beings are made to interact with one another. We're supposed to go out. We're supposed to make new friends, new connections, new experiences.

And when it goes on, you know, year, year and a half, it's like, all right, I ready, come on. We need to, you know, I remember spending a Christmas in my yard. And my sister's side of the family was like 30 yards from us. So we were on the other side. We put the gifts in the middle, and they took them back. It's like, this is how we're spending Christmas. And it's like you want to get together and sing around the tree.

Yeah. Sure. Well, rough, rough two years. No, I mean, it was, man. There's no other way to put it. Now that you have children and you're experiencing the medical world of having kids and taking them to the doctor's office, you also launched a new podcast with a doctor who happens to be.

a pediatrician how did that come about so um unfortunately my daughter when she was one went through some respiratory issues and was admitted to the ICU three separate times uh had trouble breathing and no one could really diagnose what it was so that was frightening and in doing so our pediatrician and our family became super close just because he was kind of navigating the waters and uh We became friends, and he had this idea of doing a podcast because, you know, there's a lot of parents out there that have questions, and sometimes they don't have a pediatrician available to talk with. Of course.

And he thought it would be a great idea to start a podcast where people could call in with their questions. He would give some advice. I would provide some humor and some personal stories. Which is also medicine. Which is also medicine. And at first, I think we were going to call it Laughter's the best medicine actually. Oh. But we wanted to make it a little bit more specific. And it's a dad,

we're both, we're two fathers. And sometimes at these podcasts, when it's male dominated, it's very testosterone-driven. It's like, you know, what kind of protein you don't, you know. Or men are talking about success and, you know, you go through Instagram and you go down and there's always this music and then this guy talking about it. If you want to do it, you've got to do, you know, like, this is what, what, the hustle culture, folks, the hustle culture. A hundred X philosophy. At least this is what I'm getting on my feet. No, this is 100% everyone's feet.

Okay. So, generally speaking, men don't go out for a drink or go to the game and talk about the struggles that they're dealing with being a father. Very true. So we thought it'd be nice to have a podcast where not only father's, can tune in and call up and going, hey, man, I'm running a Fortune 500 company. I'm working 100 hours a week. How do you guys deal with, you know, similar to the question that you asked me?

Also, it gives women an opportunity to kind of tune in, ask questions, but get a male perspective on parenting, which sometimes I think is absent in the podcast space. I'm not saying it's not out there. Sure. But I think the ability for people, we had a woman called in from Spain and she hadn't had the ability in her city that she lived in to ask a pediatrician what was going on with her child. And she sought out our podcast to get some medical advice. So it's like it's helping people. And that's what I like to do with all my projects.

It's not necessarily money driven or success driven. It's like, oh, I have an interest in this. I have a passion in this. I've been doing a podcast for nine years with Pete Correlli called the Pete and Sebastian show. And we haven't made anything. It hasn't been monetized. We don't have any guests.

We just love talking to one another. If we make money on the thing, great. If not, it's just a passion project. Well, it's a value ad. Not everything financial. I mean, not everything valuable has to be financial. Exactly. That's awesome that you think about it that way.

Because as you said, in hostel culture right now, it's crazy. And I think the reason it has, happens is because those people usually charge the most for their products, whether it's a course, a book, whatever it is. And as a result, they can spend the most on ads and promoting their content. So that's why it gets in front of your eyes. Is that what it is? Is that just my philosophy? Is that the trick? Well, because if you are a channel on YouTube, let's say, and you do hustle culture stuff on your YouTube channel, the amount of money you get from ads is 10x what I

get as a medical channel. And then I get 10x of what like a jokey channel does. So like there's that's why I think they're so omnipresent, like just everywhere in your face all the time. And also people want it. They seek it out. I mean, of course, if you're struggling, you're like, how do I get wealthy? He's probably the number one search term. And then I don't know if you feel this way. I came up in Brooklyn on welfare coming from Russia to the United States watching my dad go through medical school for a second time, in a new language, being very poor. And then having my level of success with social media, the wealth is the least important part or the least valuable part of what it means to be successful. Do you feel that way? Yeah, I think success

is determined by, you know, everybody has their own take on it. But mine, when I got into stand-up comedy, wasn't to be famous, wasn't to make money. It was solely because this is the only thing I really enjoy doing. If I could make money from this, obviously you want to make money to, you know, there's nothing wrong with being financially success. I don't, listen, I'm not from this. There's another culture out there that is like,

oh, these people make money. These people that are making money, I've always looked at these people coming up going, I want to do that. I want to achieve that. I never looked at people going, Oh, this guy's got so much money. Like, Elon Moss, you got a ton of money.

He didn't take it from me or you. Yeah, I don't even know where he took. He's making it. Okay, yeah. So, you know, good for him. I mean, whoever's out there making a living and being successful, I don't despise those people whatsoever. But for me, getting into comedy, strictly for the love and passion of performance.

And wherever that took me, it was going to take me. I came out to L.A. in 1998, and I said, listen, I am going to make a living doing stand-up comedy. That was the goal. Anything on top of that has been basically gravy for me. Yeah. I'm going to make a guess, and you tell me if I'm horribly off. I think you love the stand-up.

You love even movies. You hate everything around it. I saw you on comedians in cars getting coffee with Jerry Seinfeld, and I felt like you hated it. I didn't hate it. That was my doctor read of the situation. If you were my patient and I was talking to you there, you'd be like, I didn't hate it.

In those situations, especially with Jerry Seinfeld, who is, that's a guy I grew up watching and really admired. I was a little uneasy just because at that time, sometimes you're a little nervous or you have anxiety because you're talking to someone who, you know, sometimes I'm sitting, I'm in the car with Jerry Seinfeldon. I go, I'm in the car with, I was watching this guy in college.

Never did I expect me to be in the car. So it was an overwhelmed. Yeah, a lot of these times I'm in these movies. I mean, I was in a movie with Robert De Niro. And I'm like, I had this guy's poster on my wall. And now, you know, he's playing my father in an upcoming movie that I wrote. It's just sometimes like you don't really believe where you're at sometimes. And sometimes, you know, it might come out sideways.

Okay. So you are no stranger to feeling overwhelmed and anxiety. Yeah, I have some anxiety and being overwhelmed. And like I said, I think the meditation, when I do the meditation, I definitely feel a lot more at ease throughout the day. But we haven't mastered that yet. I don't think you ever mastered it. Yeah, exactly.

That's like a human life goal. So was my initial kind of thought correct about the world outside of stand-up being not your favorite world? uh you know you know my wife is extremely social she loves going out with people loves having parties i do too but uh i'm out and about talking to people for my job yep i'm performing i'm giving a lot of energy out yes i'm taking a lot of energy in yeah but ideally i am more of a homebody i don't travel with an entourage i uh so who are the five people oh is that not supposed to say is what um yeah i i tend to be a little bit more you know when i got my time off i just rather

kind of be with the people that i really enjoy being with not not going out it might be weird to say but i love that because you're a real human a lot of times in hollywood you get people who really feel like they're the thing and they have to do that and i don't know if they're putting on a show or that's truly who they are as people um i get confused on what to do around those people because I'm like you, I'm like a home body that likes to hang out and have conversations. So when people bring that big energy, I'm like, is this them? Is this a medication? Is this them putting on a show?

Is this the medication? Yeah, no, I hear you. Sometimes it's like, is this an act? Where's this going? I don't know. I'd rather sit around and talk about your purifier that you got going on that's set in the room out there. That's kind of where I live. Same.

I'm in the same world. There was something I wanted to ask about, oh, the pediatrician, a conversation we were going back to earlier. I'm a family medicine doc, so I see children, adults, any age can walk into my office, into my urgent care at any moment. To me, I feel like treating children is a lot like being a vet. They'll bite you sometimes because they don't know that you're actually helping them. They'll sneeze into your mouth. That's the thing that happens. You say, say, ah, and they sneeze.

they can't tell you what's wrong with them you have to diagnose by just looking at the body or doing certain tests do you ever feel like that as a parent like oh man how do i figure out what's wrong with my child i mean your children are older now three and five so earlier i guess earlier yeah um you know being a new parent especially and not having a you know we had our daughter and it's like oh is this is this something out of the norm yeah um Is she supposed to be breathing this way? So, yeah, sometimes you're really at a loss. And again, thank God we had a pediatrician

that could kind of guide us through these moments. I mean, we'd call them in the middle of the night, take a video of Serafina as she was breathing and go. Retractions. So, yeah, it's, when it's all new, you don't know what's going on. Yeah. Has that situation resolved with the breathing issues? Yeah, yeah.

Oh, so kind of grew up. Was it an RSV issue? No, it was it? in that. I don't know if it was a virus at the time that was hitting hard, but for her, she had a really tough time with it. And knock on wood, we've seen a lot of illness with our children over the last six to eight months in the schools, RSV, you know, hand, foot, mouth disease. Yes. Yeah. And again, and I was talking to, you know, Dr. Scott, and I'm like, growing up, I'm 49, growing up, I don't remember all this sick.

We got sick once a year. You had a cold, you blew your nose, and then you went back to school. I don't remember going to school and someone going, I had hand, foot, and mouth disease. Where did that come from? Well, we all become microbiologists and immunologist over the pandemic, right? Everyone's a specialist with their opinion on what's going on. I don't know. I mean, are you seeing, I mean, you're 32, you're a young guy.

So you kind of came up, you know, 17 years. later, but growing up in the 70s and the 80s, I don't remember such a problem with illness in school, or maybe I was just not privy to it. Something happened from the 80s to the 90s. I wasn't there. I was born in 89, but something happened where let's say, let's take asthma as an example. Asthma prevalence, the amount of people with asthma, developing asthma, in that 10-year span went up 45%. Really? and then over the next 10 years it went up a little bit and the next 10 years kind of fallen and the question is what happened during those 10 years that something happened to our immune

systems where they started overreacting was it we were really keeping our children clean and boiling everything and not letting them play in dirt you know that whole philosophy the hygiene theory and i feel like that could be part of it because right now with rsv one of the leading theories of why there's such a run on hospitals in RSV is because generally kids get RSV in their first three years of life. There's like a 50% chance each year that they get their first episode. And their first episode with RSV is usually the worst.

That's when they have like the time that where they need breathing treatments, maybe ICU stay. And we've held our kids back from school and grandparents and everybody that could have gotten them sick for the last two years. So now the children that would have gotten it each year have all gotten it at the same time. And it was their first.

time. So it kind of creates a run on hospitals. That's the leading theory. Gotcha. So what's ironic about health care and what I try and instill in my YouTube channel, even with my silly videos, is that you can't not get sick and you can't predict everything with health care. I'm sure you've been pitched executive health programs where it's like, come in for a scan, we're going to check everything, we're going to make sure you're the healthiest person, and we're going to optimize and boost your immune system. Have you heard something like that? It doesn't exist.

Like a lot of the shit out there is shit. Well, in that case, isn't it like if they say, okay, we're going to run a scan or do a test on your heart to see if the arteries are, you know, whatever, if you need medication or whatnot? Isn't that some sort of preventative test where, okay, you got 80% blockage we're going to give you X, Y, Z? Sure. so are you recommending people don't do these preliminary scans or tests this is why I have to be very careful because it's hard to make generalizations preventive care exists a lot of the time preventive care is all wrapped up in the same thing things that take work you know exercise the mindfulness meditation the sleep the social connections the things that every doctor would

recommend but they've gotten so tired of recommending because no one listens to them or they get too tired and they don't have time to listen to them and then they get pitched a shortcut miracle pill that they start doing that instead. But there are certain things prevention is key for when it comes to cancer screenings, vaccinations, we can get ahead of things. But then there's a lot of things where the prevention aspect of trying to do something before something happens, which is called a screening, actually can be harmful. And that's why you'll see screenings change over time. Like initially, let's say when I was coming up in my training, we're saying every male above a certain age should get a PSA to check their prostate.

Now we've kind of seen less benefit of doing so and have moved away from saying everyone should get it and now it's a shared decision making recommendation where you and I will talk about the risks and benefits of getting the screening for you and then we decide what to do. Is it the actual screening that's causing the issue or is it what it does to you psychologically

if you find out, oh I got blockage and all of a sudden, you're thinking you got blockage and that is, is making it worse. A good screening needs to be actionable and the problem that it's screening for needs to be preventable. So there's no point screening you for something that I can't act upon. You know, they have these like fancy genetic tests. Find out if your risk of Alzheimer's is extremely high and people will pay for this thing. And then what? There's nothing I can do for you as a doctor to help you decrease that risk. So now we just raised your anxiety. You have this knowledge.

and then we the same seven recommendations sleep better eat better like there's nothing to do it's not actionable information and with a prostate test what we've seen is then people start going for biopsies unnecessarily because their PSA number was high simply because of their age their prostate grew something known as benign hyperplasia of the prostate gland and they get the biopsy they get a side effect from the biopsy now they have issues with urination erections and it's like, why do we create this problem when this wouldn't have extended the person's life? Got it. And there's a lot of times where medicine will do that because it sounds like we have a lot

of control. And the answer is we don't. We know just enough to get by in some situations and the rest is ego. So that's why it's important to have a good relationship with a primary care doctor who can tell you what's bullshit, what's not. And what's bullshit and what's not, it differs person to person. Like what I may recommend for Sam might be not be the same thing that I recommend for you. And that's why I tell everyone, get a good PCP.

Do you have a good relationship? Your pediatrician friend is probably not your doctor. No, no, no, no, yeah. I have a good relationship with my primary care physician. And, you know, I'm not into a lot of this. I'm into, listen, the only way you're going to live a healthy life is just what you're saying. diet exercise sleep uh being mentally um strong uh outside of that i mean some things are hereditary you know i mean heart disease runs in my family so you know there's a chance that

i might drop out of a heart attack uh but other than that i mean again if i start hearing stuff that like this Alzheimer's my grandfather died Alzheimer's if i know that I know that I'm prone to Alzheimer's. Every day I wake up and I don't remember something, I'm like, that's it. No memory. So it's better off I don't know. Yeah.

Yeah, again, only if it would be valuable for you to know. Yes, yes. Like, even, like, they'll say get a full body scan. What is a full body scan? What does that mean? Like, they'll say, like, get a full body cat scan. And we'll find early stages of things. But humans have lumps, bumps, bumps, nodules that are, who cares?

that they have no impact on your life. They would have no impact on your life. And now you're A, anxiously aware of this thing. And then B, you've got to follow this thing. Why, doctor is going to be like, oh, you have a knowledge. I'm not going to follow it. And now you're getting cat scans every year, radiating your body, creating cancer. Do you see how easy that can happen?

Yeah. Because there's really a thin line between this screening test decreases risk of dying of this cancer versus decreasing your risk of dying, period. Those are very important things. because I can have a test that a hundred percent decreases your likelihood of dying of a certain cancer but do you know how it works?

I kill you in the process. You won't die the cancer, you can die from me killing you. But do you see how I lowered the risk of the cancer dying risk? So like you've got to be really careful. That's obviously an exaggeration. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't kill anyone. I wanted to touch on something you mentioned about lately it's been called toxic masculinity. I think it's a term that might be misused at times. where men try and act tough, they don't seek help for their medical problems, they're afraid to talk about their feelings.

And to me as a primary care doctor, where I see it pop up is when it comes to mental health, men will show signs of depression in a different way where they will put on that act that we talked about earlier. They'll act tough, they'll be louder, they may abuse substances, they may start gambling, they may start doing these things. what's your take on the state of toxic masculinity and how people talk about it these days?

I mean, I grew up, immigrant father, worked like a mule. Right? I didn't look at that as toxic masculinity. I just looked at it as you're a man. He's programmed to work. He's more emotional now, my father, than he ever was. in the past. It's different for me because I haven't seen that side of him. But I also like that he's showing those emotions.

Is he in touch with his emotions, you mean? Or just show, like. Yeah, I mean, my dad is susceptible to crying more often than I saw him growing up, exhibit those types of behaviors. But whatever they're, you know, I think men in general in the past have kind of had the pressure to hold it all together and not ask for help or not show vulnerability. But I don't think we lose the whole, you know, that, like my father, the way I grew up, I would never change. that because I got a lot of what I do from him and if he would have been any different maybe I wouldn't have you know taken those traits of work ethic and you know putting your

head down and and and just being a being a I mean can you say being a man anymore I mean is that is there's there's certain characteristics that men have that uh that make us make us go. Yeah, I think the only thing maybe I could say from my scientific perspective is it's a masculine thing versus feminine. And a masculine mindset could be exhibited by a man or a woman. So I think that's kind of the only approach that I would take slightly differently because I have patients that would exhibit the traits that you're talking about, but they might be a woman. So I could see those things changing. And I think looking at all of those things in a

solely negative light, you're going to miss out on a lot of good, just like as you're saying, the work ethic example, the discipline, the things that you need to truly achieve something great, you can't throw all that away. But you can improve upon it. And I'm sure there's things your father has done in your life that you're like, okay, I love that he did that. And from that I took away that I should always work hard and do this, but here's what I'm going to do differently. And the new generations approve upon. Is there anything that strikes an example to you of something that you're like, here's what I'm going to improve upon? maybe as a father well yeah and i don't just i don't at all look down on my father for not necessarily

being there when we were kids because he was working so much in different times yeah and i said to myself i go i want to spend more time with my kids than my dad spent with me at at at these ages so that's definitely something that i've taken and wanted to change the sensitivity and the emotional part I really got from my mother. My mother was, you know, that kind of caretaker and whatnot. And she exhibited those qualities. And I think I absorbed a lot of that from, from her. So I took, you know, a lot from my mother and my father.

And now, as I'm starting my own family, I'm going, okay, you know, there was a sense of a negativity around the house that it was, it was, not that it was all, like, negative. but you know sometimes my mother still exhibited it today and i and i have some of this in me too where you know i'll go uh you know i'm in a movie any lines you know like you know it's just like whatever it's it's not good enough of what you're doing it's always you know uh and and you know i know it's sometimes said in and just and whatnot and and doesn't mean anything by it but because i think you knew the intention behind it i had the same thing my dad i would bring home a 97 on a test and my dad, I'd like, not 100. What are you doing? And I would be like, wow, my dad thinks I'm terrible. And then like I'll over here. I'm talking with friends showing off

that I got a 97. And I'm sure you hadn't since this. Absolutely. You know, I think as a parent too, you always want your kid to excel above and beyond their ex, or at least as a parent, your expectations is they want to, they should get 100, you know. And if it falls short, it falls short. But again, that mentality, why didn't you get a 98? You know, I think that breed is dying off. You don't really see it. You see it, but I've seen it a lot more in immigrant parents than I do in people that were born here.

I just think it needs to be balanced. And that's why I think you're doing a great job, especially merging both worlds of your parents. So obviously wish you a lot of luck with the tour. Thank you. The Netflix special that just launched. today epic half of 36 minutes and we'll get you up to speed by the end of I finished on the the zucchini okay game for those who haven't watched don't enjoy that one seriously huge congrats thank you for all that you bring and being a real human I think it's lost in Hollywood these

days so it's great to see a fellow human on stage and be as successful as you are I appreciate it thanks for having me on