WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1478 - Arnold Schwarzenegger

Episode Date: October 12, 2023

Arnold Schwarzenegger likes to focus on life’s victories. That makes for an interesting contrast with Marc, a self-described “obstacle guy.” Arnold and Marc find that their differing approaches to taking on the world make for good conversation about generational change, political awakenings and being useful, which is the subject of Arnold’s new book. They also discuss bodybuilding, James Cameron’s vegan advice, and Arnold’s rivalry-slash-friendship with Sylvester Stallone. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Be honest. When was the last time you thought about your current business insurance policy? If your existing business insurance policy is renewing on autopilot each year without checking out Zensurance, you're probably spending more than you need. That's why you need to switch to low-cost coverage from Zensurance before your policy renews this year. Zensurance does all the heavy lifting to find a policy, covering only what you need, and policies start at only $19 per month. So if your policy is renewing soon, go to Zensurance and fill out a quote. Zensurance, mind your business.

Death is in our air. This year's most anticipated series, FX's Shogun, only on Disney+. We live and we die. We control nothing beyond that. An epic saga based on the global bestselling novel by James Clavel. To show your true heart is to risk your life. When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series, streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply.

Lock the gates! all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck nicks what's happening i'm mark maron this is my podcast welcome to it. I hope you're holding up okay. It's a difficult world to hold up in. Look, I'm a Jew, and I've been to Israel twice. twice. I don't have fully realized, backloaded information about politics, about history, but I do know how I feel in terms of my experience and what I'm feeling now from the information that's coming at me from all directions through the machines I surround myself with. My family, we were not really religious Jews, but we were definitely Jews, identified as Jews, Jews from New Jersey.

My family's heritage, Jewish-wise, both sides. We're all here in America before World War II, before actually the creation of Israel, the modern Jewish state. But Israel has a place in the minds and in some of the hearts of all Jews.

It was supposed to be the one place we knew we could go. If all else crumbled, if we were run out of every other place, we could always go there and be among

Jews. My mother was not a religious person. And as she got older, she's become very attached to Israel. She loves Israel. She's been several times. She went for a few weeks and spent time on a kibbutz. My family went to Israel many years ago. I guess maybe I was just out of high school. It was probably the early 80s. We went on a tour. And on that tour, I think it was a bus tour. And I think my parents were probably the youngest people outside of the kids, which was me and my brother. That's my recollection. These were all very old, almost all Jews, on a bus tour of Israel. You know, the power of the connection of Jews to Israel,

of all kinds, these were mostly American Jews. And there is something that happens to be, I wrote a whole book about it, Jerusalem Syndrome. It's not a political book. It's a book about belief, about mysticism, about self-importance to a degree on the level of biblical proportions. Something about American Jews on a bus in their 70s and 80s going to Israel, many for the first time. It's a revelation. It's a homecoming. It's a mythology. It's an ideal.

This was where we're supposed to end up. Some of them were visiting graves of relatives of people that came there after the Holocaust. And, you know, we visited a kibbutz. We were told about the miracles of agriculture, what the Israelis were able to do in the desert, make it a farmland, a technology leader. But at the core of it, for me, my reaction to it was I was terrified almost all the time. I was fascinated with the religious history

that's available in Israel, in Jerusalem. It was sort of the headquarters of all the religions, history that goes back thousands of years, Muslim history, Christian history, Jewish history, history, Jewish history, layers of conflict, destruction, shrines, mosques, temples, churches, the Baha'i religion. But at all times, there were soldiers with guns everywhere. And for me, I really couldn't understand how you could live there. It was just scary. You know, maybe I'm a sensitive guy. Maybe I'm not cut out for it. It was just scary. The idea of serving in the armed forces and yeah, and there's a pride to all this. And I understand what Israel represents to Jews as an idea, as an idea, as a country, as salvation, as safety. I understand all that.

I'm an American Jew, and I felt scared there. That was my experience. I saw Bedouins, Palestinians, Orthodox Jews, Israeli soldiers, socialist Jews on the kibbutzes. But there was always a feeling, and not an unwarranted feeling, of I was overly sensitive and terrified. No matter how much I was told that, you know, you really couldn't be in a safer place. You know, this has been carved out. It's well defended.

I didn't, again, I did not know really the history. I was a younger person. And when I read about what's happened there, you know, I just know that there were just people. They were just people on kibbutzes, people in their town, people working the land as people just working jobs as people, not unlike people who live in this country or any country after a certain point, your life is what you focus on. And, and these people who were just, you know, waking up, waiting for buses, working the land, doing things were massacred. You know, it's devastating. I'm a Jew. But it's not just as a Jew, as a person. Now, not unlike here in America and, you know, things I've talked about,

And, you know, things I've talked about, about governments, about, you know, how people are seen as fodder, how people are diminished, objectified, and lumped together. It never leads anywhere good. And then almost ancient rivalries founded in a need for power at the top of any sort of paradigm on any side, you know, sees human life as garbage, as disposable. But my heart goes out to innocent people just trying to live their fucking lives. I do know I'm a Jew. I do talk about being a Jew. I do talk about antisemitism. do talk about being a Jew. I do talk about anti-Semitism. I do talk about the fear of Jews being diminished to a point of non-humanity to where they can be slaughtered in the name of a cause, an ideology. I do talk about all this. In this country, I have an understanding, I do talk about all this. In this country, I have an understanding, I believe, of what's going on in this country. I don't see any solution or hope, and I don't really think the outcome is going to be anything but fucking awful.

I don't know how else to really talk about this. And I know there's death all around and innocent people killed on all sides. But I do stand with Jews. but I do stand with Jews. I'll be in Bellingham, Washington at the Mount Baker theater for one show on Saturday, October 14th as part of the Bellingham exit festival. I'll be at Largo in LA next week, Monday, October 16th, Portland, Oregon. A late show was added to my dates at Helium on Sunday, October 22nd. Boston, I'm at the TD Garden for Comics Come Home on Saturday, November 4th.

Denver, Colorado, I'll be at the Comedy Works South for four shows, November 17th and 18th. And now I've added some new dates for Los Angeles in December. I'm at Dynasty Typewriter on December 1st, 13th, and 28th. I'm at the Elysian on December 6th, 15th, and 22nd, and Largo again on December 12th and January 9th. Go to wtfpod.com slash tour for tickets. I did not mention earlier because I just wanted to say what was in my mind and in my heart at the time. But Arnold Schwarzenegger is on the show today. He's here. He's got a new book out.

It's called Be Useful, Seven Tools for Life. You can get it right now wherever you get your book. But, yeah, I never assumed that I was going to talk to Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I did. There was talk of it happening at another time, but it didn't happen. And I was like, all right. So, you know, I didn't know what to expect. I mean, he's Arnold Schwarzenegger. There is no other one.

International superstar. No matter what you think of him, he is singular. He is one other one. International superstar. No matter what you think of him, he is singular. He is one of one. Everybody, I would say, in the world knows who Arnold Schwarzenegger is. So, of course, I was going to talk to him because he seemed, at first, I was like, can he talk? Of course he can. He was governor. But there's just many layers to this guy. You know, there's the Arnold movie star,

there's the Arnold politician, there's the Arnold human who is moving through a certain amount of humility and contrition around his personal behaviors. There's a historic Arnold. But I do think in this conversation, you do get a spectrum of the Arnolds. And it was great because he's fucking hilarious. But the entire experience was hilarious. You know, I'm waiting for him. He's running. I can't remember if it was late or early, probably early. I was told he might have a security team.

There was a publicist. And then there was this problem, you know, out back here, there's a construction going on directly behind, uh, the garage here on the property next door to the house. I'm not exactly sure what they're doing. I should, I should find out. But on the day Arnold was coming, I was already kind of nervous about it because I don't think he's necessarily a controversial figure. He is to some people, but everyone's got an opinion of him. But most people grew up with Arnold Schwarzenegger in those fucking movies and they made an impact. He will be forever the Terminator to some people or whatever movie you choose, but Arnold is singular.

choose but Arnold is singular and I watched the documentary and I got a sense of him and you know he is funny and he's self-aware enough to be funny so I got this problem there's all this noise and I'm freaking out and I tell Brendan I don't know what we're gonna do they're hammering you can hear it and I was just hoping for some free zone from the noise when Arnold came. And Brendan was like, you know, just go give him some money. Give him a thousand bucks to cut it, you know, to stop it, you know, for an hour. And, you know, before Arnold got here, you know, I went around. I talked to some of the workers. I don't know where the owner of the house was, but I tried to communicate. I talked to somebody, the one guy, the guy in charge.

And I'm like, hey, man, from30 to one 30, can we not have noise? I'm going to be talking to Arnold Schwarzenegger and I just need there. I need it to be quiet if it's possible. Is that possible? I didn't offer him any money and I don't think he was really processing what I said. He goes, he just said, you know, 1230 to one 30. I'm like, yeah. He's like, okay.

And I'm like, well, that was simple. And, but I didn't know if they, you know, there was part of me that sort of like, did you hear though? I'm going to be talking to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Uh, and I don't think that registered, but so now I, I at least got, you know, a promise that, or, or an agreement that they would not be hammering. And then he drives up. He's sitting out in the car up front, and I'm like, hi, how you doing, Arnold? He's like, hello.

How are you, Mark? But he's FaceTiming on his iPad with somebody in Austria about getting a jacket from a hotel there for a benefit. And then he gets out, and he tells me, yeah, I do a benefit, you know, every year. Can't do the, but he's like, this year is Oktoberfest theme. And I'm like, you're going to wear lederhosen? He's like, oh, yeah.

But he was trying to get the jacket for somebody who was a donor. I don't know, but all I know is that within five minutes, I knew that Arnold was going to be wearing lederhosen shortly. Not that day, but shortly. And it all made sense to me. But nonetheless, he goes into the garage, he comes in here, he sits down. And then I want to make sure that the guys on the other side of the fence there who were pounding away at the structure directly behind the one I'm in now, and the one me and Arnold were in, were ready to stop. And it's hard. There's a trellis,

and then there's some trees. So you really have to struggle to kind of look through that fence. And the fence is sort of like, it comes up to where your head is. So, you know, your head would be seeing over the fence, but you have to see through the trellis. So I lean in and go, okay, you guys, can we do the quiet thing now?

And they're like, okay. And I'm like, Arnold Schwarzenegger is here. And then one of the guys was like, what? He's here now? And I'm like, yeah, he's here and I'm going to talk to him. Arnold Schwarzenegger? And then there was just all of a sudden a buzz. I'm like, yeah, he's here. And they're like, where? Where is he? And so these three heads come up to the trellis. And now Arnold's already in here. And I'm out there and I'm going, Arnold. Arnold, come out and just say hi to these guys.

Because they're working over here and they're going to be quiet. And he comes out and he just, he leans out the door to where these guys could see him. He goes, I'll be back. And they went crazy with excitement. Crazy with excitement. I was like, oh'll be back. And they went crazy with excitement, crazy with excitement. I was like, oh my God, I've seen him all my life. So that was a lot easier than paying $1,000. Not that I would have minded.

So then Arnold and I just, we got into it, which you'll hear. And then afterwards when he was done, one of the guys, two of them, came out. They were just waiting out front to just meet him, to just look at him, and just to say that they love his movies. And it was kind of beautiful, to be honest with you. This guy's had an impact in a lot of different ways,

no matter how or what you think of them. And I think we did all right. So this is me talking to Arnold Schwarzenegger. But before I cut to that, I do want to say for a more in-depth thing, if you want to hear bonus episodes, sign up for the full Marin, which you can get by going to the link in the episode description or by going to WTF pod.com and clicking WTF plus idea debrief with Brendan about Arnold on the latest one. Uh, and if you're signed up for WTF plus by October 15th, you'll be eligible to win one of 30 signed tour posters. These are posters from my tours throughout the years, all with original artwork.

They're not available for sale. If you're signed up by October 15th, you'll automatically be in the drawing for the giveaway. And again, the book, Be Useful, Seven Tools for Life. You can get it wherever you get books. And this is me and Arnold. Be honest. When was the last time you thought about your current business insurance policy?

If your existing business insurance policy is renewing on autopilot each year without checking out Zensurance, you're probably spending more than you need. That's why you need to switch to low-cost coverage from Zensurance before your policy renews this year. Zensurance does all the heavy lifting to find a policy, covering only what you need, and policies start at only $19 per month. So if your policy is renewing soon, go to Zensurance and fill out a quote. Zensurance, mind your business. Death is in our air.

This year's most anticipated series, FX's Shogun, only on Disney+. We live and we die. We control nothing beyond that. An epic saga based on the global best-selling novel by James Clavel. To show your true heart is to risk your life. When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series

streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. How are you feeling? I'm feeling great. Yeah? Why, do I look bad?

No, you look good. No, but I mean, the way you ask is in a very suspicious way. Why do I? How are you feeling? It's kind of like I look like I'm wiping out very soon or something like that. No, you don't look like that at all.

But, you know, I did some reading, you know, and I read the book. And, you know, I know you've had some obstacles physically. And I just want to make sure you're feeling all right. Can you believe that? I mean, the first thing you talk about is the obstacles. How about the victories? Not the obstacles. I mean, what kind of a person are you?

I'm an obstacle guy. Oh, obstacle guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm the guy that realizes there are obstacles, and I analyze the obstacles, and then I talk about the obstacles until I get bored with it, and they go away. That's my approach. I think it's a very good approach. How can I criticize it? It worked.

Everything works for you. I mean, you're the number one podcaster in the world, and you have a real—you know what I like about your life? What? And I can relate to that because I've done it several times. That is kind of reinventing yourself. Because you come from—you're a comedian. Yeah. You're a very well-known comedian, and I think that at one point or the other, you decided probably.

Yeah. I'm guessing that, so you can answer that for yourself. But it seemed to me you said to yourself, maybe the comedy thing, I get to be over the hill very soon on that one. I'm going to start something new. And your vision was to be a podcaster, not knowing. was to be a podcaster, not knowing. I mean, I think you knew that podcasting is really where the future is, but no one else did.

So you were out there by yourself. I'd like to take credit for that. You should. Well, I do, but I don't think I knew. See, and also the other thing is I wasn't a popular comedian. I was at the end of my rope. I was in a garage, and I didn't know what I was doing. No, no, you were popular, but, I mean, you thought that you're in the end of your rope, but in fact, you were not, because I don't think

there is a age limit to comedy. I mean, Milton Berle, when I worked with Milton Berle, he was already in his 70s, then in his 80s. Did he show you his dick? I didn't have to see it to know about it.

But I mean, I was doing a eulogy at his funeral. You did? Yeah, and I said, look, even the son of a bitch is dead. I still had a difficult time putting the top on his casket. I said, because the weenie was sticking out too far. It was stuff like that. So, I mean, yeah, I mean, he was known for that. Yeah, yeah.

Some of it he even said, he said, you know, people always say, I have such a long dick and all this stuff. And he says, but it's not true. He says, even though right now while I'm standing out here, I have the kitchen help jerking me off. You know? So it's like he always had some stupid joke about his dick. The big dick joke. Well, that was it.

Well, you know, when I'm going through the book, how much of that, because you're saying this to me, but I didn't know. I didn't make a decision because of age or any other reason other than desperation to get into a medium that nobody knew about because I happen to be good at talking on a microphone. So I didn't have foresight. I lucked out. It was good cosmic timing. But in your belief system, does that mean that I really did know? Well, I believe that luck, when you say lucked out, I think luck is when talent meets opportunity. Sure.

You know, and so to me, I think that the very fact that you picked something that, you could have picked a hundred other things. I couldn't do anything else. No, but you picked something that became great. Yeah. If it was you that motivated it, where people said, this is actually interesting. I couldn't do anything else. No, but you picked something that became great. Yeah. If it was you that motivated it, where people said,

this is actually interesting. Wait, look how many people he can reach. Yeah. More than any of those television shows. Yeah. So why don't we go and do interviews with that guy rather than being on a television show and traveling all the way to New York and all this stuff. Yeah.

So I think you maybe tapped into something that maybe you did not know, but you guessed and you felt that this could be really great. Otherwise, you wouldn't have done it. And then other people copied it. And now everyone, there's a lot of people that are doing it, but no one can reach your kind of talent and the kind of guests that you have. Let me brag a little bit about you.

Don't keep saying nah. Nah. I'm saying yeah. I'm saying yeah. And you're fucking cold. And I'm saying nah. I'm saying yeah. I'm saying yeah.

You're saying Jesus Christ. Yeah. No, I was excited about coming over because this guy is really a pioneer. Yeah.

It's like I was in bodybuilding. It's always kind of, it takes a little bit more balls to be out there the first one. Yeah.

And to do something. And you don't know. Yeah. If this is working or not. That's right. But you hope for it. Right. So I think that's what it was. And you did well.

Well, I appreciate that. But, you know, in looking at the system of the seven, who decides it's seven tools? The publisher. Yeah. Fucking idiots. You know, I say I give them 10 rules and I say, well, we only can do 268 pages. I say, why?

What is the limit to the success? 268. What's the magic? Well, because it's your fault. I say, well, how can it be my fault? She says, because you wanted to be below a certain price

so it's affordable for everyone. I say, of course, that's important. I say, kids should be able to afford it. You know, women, the mothers that want to buy it for their kids or something, they should be able to afford it. I say, everyone should be able to afford it. So we don't want to make it too expensive.

Well, then we can only do 268 pages. So there's seven tools to life. What are the other three? Are the other three where you say like— It could be 15. I mean, there's endless amount of lessons. Are there ones where you say like, well, if it doesn't work out, maybe you're just not good enough? I just say, keep enough room.

I cannot ram my fist in your stomach and break your goddamn spine. Whatever the movie lines are. Get to the chopper. The other line is the chopper eight. Chapter eight would have been, get to the chopper. That was the other line. Chopper 8. Chapter 8 would have been, get to the chopper. My friend thought you could have named each chapter after a different muscle group. Or a different movie line. Sure.

Anything you want. Exactly. But was there stuff? Just one chapter is true lies. You're right. That would have been interesting. Exactly. That would have been interesting.

Exactly. So, but, you know, you frame it that, like, you know, you always had this will of positivity to keep pushing forward. Are you going to tell me that you've never felt, you know, desperate, alone, angry, and unable to see a way forward? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are you kidding me? I wake up sometimes depressed. I have sometimes, you know, where I feel like, okay, this is coming to an end. This is not happening.

I go through all the same things as everyone else does. The key thing is just how do you deal with it? Yeah. You know, because I think that we all go through times when we fail or, like you said earlier, or times where we have trouble, times where you struggle, times where you feel like you're not being heard, or things aren't going exactly your way. But what I do is I always reach for those tools, those basic tools that always helped me in life to then get out of that and to become successful

and to reach my goals and to kind of take the victory at the end of the day. Well, let me ask you a question because, you know, the one thing that I tend to focus on that I don't know that you focus on is that, you know, what about, do you ever look back at your life and say, like, I have to, you know, process this trauma? You know, I have to deal with this psychologically, you know, like whatever your relationship was with your father, you know, do you work on that in other ways other than just, you know, plowing through? very thing that got me out of Austria, that got me out of that everyday life that all my other friends went into, you know, to become kind of an employee for the government or

to be a garbage collector or to be a plumber, whatever it is. And they stayed over there and they were kind of like looking forward to their pension. Right. At 65. No, I was able to kind of run away from that. Yeah. And say, I'm going to get out of here. I cannot take it any longer.

And I left. And I went into the military early. I went into Germany to be an instructor in a bodybuilding gym. And then eventually, when I won the world championships in bodybuilding, I came to America. And then I made my life in America. But it was that motivation and that will came all because of my upbringing and because of my father and my mother and their strictness and all of that stuff. Because you wanted to get away?

I wanted to get away. I wanted to start my own life. I don't want to have that life. But do you ever have these moments where you think like, you know, well, I've got these things that you're focusing on the positive, but is there ever a point where you focus and realize like there are these negative things I got? No, because I don't feel the negative. Even with all of the trauma that I went through with my father,

I can say that I look back at my father, and I have pictures all over my house of my father. You do? Yeah. I love my father. You do? Yeah. I love my father. I mean, I wish that just for one hour he could wake up and see what has happened in my life and what is going on in the world and all of those kind of things. No, I think that's as good as he could do. What do you think he would say about your life and the things in the world?

Well, the first thing he would just say is, are you useful? Yeah. You know, are you useful? Yeah. You know, are you doing something? Are you helping other people? Or are you just screwing around or something? And so he would analyze it in a serious way and stuff. But I think he would be very proud, and he would be absolutely delighted.

And especially since he also always talked about, yeah, America's a great place. When I came home and I saw this great footage, documentary footage in high school about America, and I said, oh, my God, they have like six-lane highways. They have these huge cars with fins sticking out of their back. They have the Empire State Building that's 10 times taller than any building in Austria and blah, blah, blah.

They have the Golden Gate Bridge. And so my father said, oh, yeah, it's They have the Golden Gate Bridge. Sure, yeah, yeah. And so my father said, oh, yeah, it's a beautiful country. It's fantastic. But, you know, just dream about it because it's all you're ever going to do. Dream about it. So he sort of— I said to him, I said, no, I have to go there.

I think that I was born to be in America. She says, oh, don't be ridiculous. What do you think, they're going to wait for you over there? Yeah, yeah. They're plenty of idiots over there. They're going to need another one and stuff like that. So he will be negative about it. Do you think part of your drive though, to, to sort of succeed and to, uh, you know, to become self-actualized in the purest way possible, which is, you know, through your body.

Uh, do you think that in some ways that was to, to kind of show him? No, it was, I think that we all want to show our parents and show off, look how great I am. That's why I wanted them always to come to weightlifting meets to see how strong I am. But they had no interest in it. It's not like in the day-to-day. Did that hurt your feelings? No, because in those days, I did not know that parents could do that. Yeah.

See, because when I came to America and when I brought up with Maria our kids, that's when I learned for the first time that over here parents go and see everything that the kids do. They go to recitals. They go to the singing things. They do supportive. They do the football games,

they do the baseball games, they do the basketball games, do everything. So we did that. And that's when I started thinking about, it's funny, my parents never went to one single event. Yeah, I think they went to the Mr. Olympia contest that I was competing in in 1972. This was just before my father died.

They both came to this competition in Essen in Germany. I won the Mr. Olympia contest. So I think they saw some of my bodybuilding success. But that was it. Were they proud? They were very, very proud. They just walked around very, very proud. And my mother, you know, she was one of those that she wanted my trophies.

So I sent her my trophies always. And then she ran around for weeks in the village in Austria. And to show off, look at my son won another trophy. And guess what? I got him into bodybuilding. My mother didn't get me into bodybuilding. Bogus, right? But I mean, this is what she said.

She said, it was me. I gave him the discipline. I remember getting him the honey. And I scrambled the eggs for him and mixed it with the oatmeal, and then I gave him the food to get him really strong. I had to do all this for my, you know, I even sewed his posing trunk, which is true. She made my posing trunks because the trunks that I saw out there,

the bathing suit was not good enough. So I said, we've got to make them smaller here. I got to have them in black and not in brown and blah, blah, blah, whatever. So she sewed them. So she, of course, ran around, and she says, she created me to make them smaller here. I've got to have them in black and not in brown and blah, blah, blah. Whatever. So she sold them. So she, of course, ran around and she says, she created me. It was all her. So the funny thing was, in 1977, I met the Golden Globe Awards. And I win now the Golden Globe for Best Acting Debut.

In Pumping Iron? For the movie. No, it was for Stay Hungry. Yeah, right, right. But it was a combination, Pumping Iron and Stay Hungry. But it was for Stay Hungry, officially. And so we're sitting at his table, and Sophia Loren was sitting there also. And so she had her mother.

And then Sylvester Stallone was sitting there. And he had his mother. So we all were sitting there with our mothers. And they had a debate over how much they helped us. You know, how we were all Sophia Loren's mother said Sophia she was shy

I had to do everything I had to go and suggest to her she should go and take some pictures yeah you know and my mother said

oh Arnold Arnold didn't want to train at all I said do go to the gym now you know and then what mother said she says I created him my son was a fucking I didn't want to train at all. I said to him, do go to the gym now. And still, what mother says, I created him.

My son was a fucking idiot. I taught him. I said, go to take some acting classes and become a star. So we always laugh about that. All of our mothers were showing off and competing about how they all were helpful to our careers. But in the meantime, they didn't do anything. Was that the beginning of the Stallone rivalry? No, no. In those days, we didn't rival at all.

We were kind of supportive. As a matter of fact, he offered me a movie back in the 70s. The rivalry then became later on. What movie? Well, it started out when— What movie did he offer you in the 70s? Hell's Kitchen or something like that. It was one of the movies that he was writing and working on.

But then he goes, so he and I got along. We had the same agents, the same lawyers, everything the same. But the competition then came in the 80s when I think my movie started to become bigger and bigger. But he was always way ahead of me, career-wise, money-wise. While I was making a million dollars a movie, he already was making $10 million a movie. So he was ahead. But, I mean, eventually I caught up.

And that's when the shit hit the fan. So he didn't like that. I didn't like him kind of all of a sudden getting into my turf and having a ripped body. All of a sudden he was like out there. Right. I remember that. I remember that.

And he said, everyone can walk to me and say, can you believe Stallone's body? Yeah. I mean, do you see how ripped he is? Yeah. Do you see his upper pectoral muscle and the lower back? It was totally separated. Yeah. I mean, do you see his abs?

I mean, that guy had an eight pack. And I said, well, am I chubbed liver? What about my body? And so it was like he was getting all the attention with the body. And I was getting all the attention about the movies. So we started kind of despising each other.

We just couldn't coexist. It was one of those stupid things where he looked at me as the enemy. I looked at him as the enemy. And I said to myself, this is it. This is all out war. I looked at him as like the enemy. And, you know, I said to myself, this is it. This is all out war. I said, if Sly has a 12-inch knife, I'm going to have a 20-inch knife.

If Sly kills 16 people in his next movie, I'm going to kill 36 people in the movie. And this is how it went. If he uses, you know, this M47, I'm going to use a machine gun from a helicopter, a big monster machine gun that he cannot even carry around. And I would be carrying around casually. So it was like, if he makes $100 million at the box office, I'm going to make $150 million. So this was crazy stuff. But the competition drives you.

Yeah, it's, you know, we realized that it was kind of a game for us. Because deep down inside, I respected him. And I thought that everything he did was really great. And he was, like, multi-talented. And I appreciated all that because I didn't have that. I didn't have the skills to write scripts. I didn't have the skills to kind of, like, direct have the skills to kind of like direct movies like he did. So I said, that's really cool.

But they were, fuck him. I'm going to still outdo him and stuff. So there was the whole idea. But I mean, and then when we became friends again because of Planet Hollywood. You see, Planet Hollywood was like all of a sudden we had to kind of promote those restaurants together. We flew around the world together. So we were finally back again. But I think the thing that you have that he essentially doesn't have is a sense of humor.

Well, no. That's not correct. I tell you, Sly has an extraordinary sense of humor. Not on screen. No. You're not correct. I tell you, Sly has an extraordinary sense of humor. Not on screen. No. You're absolutely correct. He's not able to put it like that on the screen. But in life, when you fly around with him,

I laughed with him more than with anybody when he was telling jokes and funny stuff about his childhood, about his mother. Yeah, yeah. It was hilarious. He is very, very funny. And I think that on his childhood, about his mother. It was hilarious. He is very, very funny. And I think that in his show, Toss the King,

it is actually, you can see his sense of humor. Because I think now he's able to do, to play that out much more natural than he used to do. And also in his reality show that he has with his kids and with his wife.

Right. Because it's. You also, you can see a sense of. A little more intimate. Oh, yeah, absolutely. But you knew from the beginning almost. At some point you took a turn where you're like, I'm funny and we got to, we got to work with it.

I always, I always thought it was funny and I always thought that I had a sense of humor and I was also able to laugh at myself. Right. At the stupidity of it all. The competition and the bodybuilding. I said, how funny is that that you're oiled up with little posing trunks and you're standing up on stage

in front of 5,000 people to say, look, I'm the most muscular man in the world. It's so stupid. But I mean, that's the things that you do. It's the same thing as like someone having a golf ball and going through 18 holes and playing golf. Right. I mean, and then what iron should we have?

Okay, let's get the three. No, no, I think you need the five. No, no, let me take the wood. And you say, what the fuck? I mean, it's like they take this stuff seriously. We all take those things so seriously and in a serious way. And I think that's what makes the world go around. It makes it actually fun, live fun.

We always will be kind of kids in a way. Well, yeah, I think if you don't take yourself too seriously. Did you ever, like, was there ever, did you and Stallone ever talk about the Stop or My Mom Will Shoot? You know, because you tell that story about setting him up. Yeah, he actually mentioned it in his interviews. And then people started, I never talked about it. Yeah. But he mentioned it in an interview.

And then people started asking me about it. And I said, yeah, he's absolutely correct. It was like a setup. You knew it was bad, so you told your agents you didn't want to do it. Well, I said to my agent, you know, you kind of have to play it smart because you cannot say everything to your agent either because they're fucking idiots too, right? They kind of will blow it.

So I couldn't really say to my agent, no, let's set up Sly because then he calls his agent who is maybe his buddy and he will blow it all, right? So I said, I'm somewhat interested in that. I said, the ending is really spicy. I said, I think it could be really good.

Let's just see what offer we get. And then the studio would call back Paul, says, well, if Arnold doesn't want to do it, let him know that there is already

other people that are on top of that. Like Sylvester Stallone, I would like to do it. I said, oh, no. Oh, please hold off. Don't give me too long. You know, I want to have it.

And they said, well, maybe you're too late. If you don't call us back by tonight. So I don't call them back. And then the next thing I know is they call me back. They say, well, you waited too long. Now Sly has, you know. So I would, you know, let now Sly has you know so I would I would you know

let the Sly people know I want this so badly yeah it is such a great script yeah and then they got it and they did the movie and it was terrible

I was like horrified I also knew that the director couldn't pull it off yeah there are certain directors that are not with the program

when it comes to comedy sure there may be like I was very fortunate with Ivan Reitman. Yeah. I did Twins and I did Kindergarten Cop. And, you know, but not everyone is that fortunate. I was very fortunate, to be honest with you, to have great directors.

I mean, think about, you know, guys like John McTernan. Sure. Who did The Predator. Yeah. Or Jim Cameron. Cameron. Who did The Terminator 1 Yeah. Or Jim Cameron. Cameron. Who did The Terminator 1, Terminator 2, and True Lies. You guys are still buddies?

Oh, yeah. He came over to my house yesterday. He was over there for two hours. Yeah. And we were schmoozing and talking about this, you know, Avatar movie that he's working on. The nine Avatar movies? The third one he's working on.

But isn't he doing like five at once? Well, he figures it out. However long these movies are hot and people are interested in. But he has enough in a can that he can do probably 600. Yeah. There's a TV series, the longest TV series ever, you know. But, I mean, I always love talking to him because he's so smart about everything. Yeah.

And so he's fun to talk to. But you've always been good about that. I mean, you're not somebody who, you always seek the advice of people that you respect. Yeah, that's why in my book I talk about that, you know, just, you know. The mirror chapter? Shut your mouth and open your mind. And there's one chapter in there.

Because I feel that it is so important, and I remember, and everything, if it has to do with when I came to America in the beginning, to kind of learn. I had to kind of like shut up and just learn. How did the Americans do business? How did the Americans make money? How did the Americans live here? How does it all work? How does it operate?

It's so different than in Europe. And so I had to kind of just be quiet, sit back, and just kind of observe. And that's what I did. I went to school. I took the advice of Joe Wieda, who brought me to America, the guy that published the muscle magazines. What was that guy like? He was fantastic. He was like a real promoter. I mean, he made me feel like bodybuilding is the hardest thing in America when, in fact, it was not.

Yeah. No one knew what it was. People always came up to me in America and they said, hey, are you a wrestler? Yeah. Are you a bouncer? Are you a football player? I said, have you ever thought about asking me if I'm a bodybuilder? A bodybuilder?

Oh. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, no, I never thought about it so I knew I had to hire a publicist to go and publicize not just myself but to publicize

bodybuilding because bodybuilders were not traditionally outgoing and they didn't do interviews with the press they felt suspicious of the press

that the press would attack them and would write bad notes and so it didn't really click. So I had to kind of like hire a publicist, go out and start, you know, working with these guys, Charles Gaines and George Butler, to do Pumping Iron, the book Pumping Iron,

and then eventually the documentary Pumping Iron, and then to do the movie Stay Hungry, which was about bodybuilding, and all of those kind of things we were doing in order to publicize bodybuilding. And I remember Rolling Stone magazine sent even to South Africa writers and photographers, Annie Leibovitz, they sent down to photograph me when I was winning the Mr. Olympia and all this. And they had this seven-page story in Stone Magazine. Jan Winner, you know, he was the publisher. And he said

we were very thankful that there were people that all of a sudden saw bodybuilding as what it was, which was a very good sport and an interesting sport. And they started publicizing it and it became huge. And then in the 70s, it exploded.

And then in the 80s, he got into movies. And all of a sudden, you know, every action hero had to look like a muscular guy, like heroic. Still, there's still sort of different versions of bodybuilding. But you have to be ripped, you know. Oh, yeah, of course you have to be ripped. It's all about size, definition, muscle separation, and the perfection of the way you have created your body. It's like sculpting. You're sculpting on yourself.

Well, I've got some self-acceptance around that. You know, I work out, but I'm not going to. I know you do. I can tell. Your triceps sticking out of this shirt. You see it. Of course I can see it. You notice right away, huh?

You're very smart because people, they don't see you because it's a radio show. Yeah. But I mean, the fact is that I should describe it that you have a striped shirt. Yes. And stripes automatically make the body look bigger. Yeah. So if you're fat, I would always say to people, don't wear stripes.

Just wear solid colors and black. But you, you have a very colorful shirt. There's stripes. And that's why your muscles are good. You can see the tricep? Of course I can see. What do you think, I'm blind? I can see your real deltoids popping up. I can see your pectoral muscles.

I see, oh, now you're flexing the lats. Look at that. How cute. And the intercostals and the serratus are popping out. What the hell is going on here? Is there a bodybuilding pose-off in here? Yes. I had to hire a stylist to get the right shirt because I knew you were coming over.

I wanted to make sure. I know it. It's a Missoni shirt. It's cheaper than that. But going back, because I want to talk a little bit about how you've shifted the way you see things. You grew up with religion or you didn't? Yeah. My mother literally made us go to church every Sunday.

Yeah. And then we had religious sessions in school, in elementary school, and then in high school. So religious kind of education was very important. We went to Catholic school and all that. But I have to education was very important. We went to Catholic school and all that. But I have to say, I was never a big fan of going to church.

But the funny thing is, we do the things that we do when we grow up. When my kids were born, I went and dragged them to church. We went to St. Monica Church every Sunday and to religious holidays and to Christmas and all that stuff. Easter. We went to St. Monica Church every Sunday and to religious holidays and to Christmas and all that stuff. Easter.

We went to all the church days and everything with the kids together. So that's what you do. But what about the God part? I believe in God. You do? Oh, yeah. No, I believe in God. When did that happen?

I always did. Yeah? It's just that I'm not a big believer in religion. Right. Or in, well, I should say, I know that you have to have an organized religion in order to get organized. You have to build the churches and to do all that. I understand all that. But I just never was that much into it on my own to go to church and to do all that stuff.

Do you believe in heaven? So, no. No. But you believe in heaven? So, no. No. But you believe in something bigger than ourselves. I believe that there's some higher power that is creating all this. But the rest of it, I have not really gotten to believe in that. Yeah. My common sense at this point tells me, you know, there is maybe a heaven, but it's not

the same way as we think. Right. We will see each other. Right. And we will be in the same form. Right. Of course. Than we are right now.

Yeah. But there is probably a heaven and there's probably a hell and all of that stuff. So it could easily be. But I think when people say, I will see you up there, I say, well, let's hope so. You know what I'm saying? Right. I think it would be great. Wouldn't it be fantastic if we all then eternally forever will see each other up there?

Yeah. I mean, that would be great. I guess. I just don't see it yet. Yeah, yeah. Not yet, but maybe someday we'll see each other up there. Yeah. I mean, that would be great. I guess. I just don't see it yet. Yeah, yeah. You know, not yet, but maybe someday I will see it. Yeah, but you won't know.

Exactly, yeah. But do you think that some part of your drive was because you were so, because there's no better metaphor for self-actualization than bodybuilding. And there's this idea that like, you know, given that you grew up with some chaos and you talk about, you know, the sadness and the post-war misery of Austria at the time and your father's torment and everything else and all the other men

that there was some way of self-actualizing and rising above the chaos. Because it seems like, you know, if I've read correctly, that you're a pretty charming diplomatic guy. You try to make things okay. You know, I imagine that all comes from your family. Right. Well, I mean, you know, I'm a creation of kind of like you need to survive. Right. And when you're out there by yourself, I mean, I left Austria when I was 19.

Yeah. I went to Germany and I had to survive. So you try to figure out, you know, it's kind of personality. Yeah. A personality is a persona that you adopt. Right. In order to get by.

Right. And to survive. Yeah. And so to me, it was always kind of like through humor, through humor, through having, you know, being able to laugh things off and to be more casual and to be more accepting

and more inclusive and stuff like that. Those are the kind of things that helped me to get through life and the rules that I talk about in the book, you know, to be open-minded, to listen to people, to learn rather than just talk, that we learn much more when we listen than when we talk.

And all this stuff, you know, I figured out. And having a very clear vision, what helped me right from the beginning was that I had a vision. I had a very clear vision of what I wanted to do is I wanted to be a bodybuilding champion. I saw myself as a Mr. Universe like Reg Park and Steve Reeves, the guys that were doing Hercules movies that I saw in those days. So I saw that. And so that's what I chased really. And it was the motivating force. It is the thing that gave me discipline. It made the thing kind of make me enjoy working out five hours a day in the gym because so many people don't enjoy what they're

doing. They don't enjoy their work. Remember, did 80, 78% of the people in America hate their jobs? Yeah. So I never hated working out. But also like, you know, you got to a level, there's like that famous clip of you talking about how, you know, you're coming all the time. Right. That, you know, who doesn't want that? So like, not everybody's going to get to that level where you're just so, you know, ripped and you can feel the blood pumping into your veins. It was almost like an addiction, I would imagine. Well, but neither did I. I mean, it was a good line.

So, you have to understand that when I was in bodybuilding in America here in the early 70s, America here in the early 70s, I was always very upset about the fact that here's Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson and all those guys playing football, and they are in the paper and on television every day. What about me? I say I'm as great in my sport as they are in their sport. But you had to define it as a sport. You had to establish it. Define it you had to define it as a sport. You had to establish it. Define it as a sport or not as a sport. Remember that even chess players,

Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, when they were competing, they were in the media everywhere. And people were debating, is chess really a sport? It has nothing to do with it. It has to do with that in America, football was huge.

Everyone watched it. So the stars got a lot of attention. They got a million dollars then already for commercial. We got nothing. I had to go into bricklaying jobs to make money and to make a living. So it was a totally different ballgame. So to me, it was kind of like I had to kind of think about how can I get headlines? How can I get into the media?

How can I get into magazines? So it was to come up with outrageous statements. I said to myself, if I go and I say a pump is better than coming, people will say, what did he say? This guy's really out there. We should have him on our show. Okay. And so that's how I got on TV. So you weren't.

They wanted me to say that on TV. So I didn't give a shit. I said it left and right. I said, yeah. I say, I pump up. I pump in the morning. I pump up in the afternoon. I pump up in the evening.

So I'm coming day and night. You know, things like that. I would say, oh, this guy's great for TV. This guy's great. Let's interview him. So then the LA Times did an interview with me. They called me the Babe Ruth of bodybuilding. So that's how I got, you know, popularity.

But then there was a lot of guys in gyms waiting for the coming. They just wanted to feel it. Let them. So a lot of people then went to the gym. Yeah. And they said, well, this is great. I'm going to join the gym. If that's the case, I want to join the gym.

Yeah. So I said, you know, probably when they came to complain, I'm going to join the gym. If that's the case, I want to join the gym. So I said, you know, probably when they came to complain, I said, probably you have not yet learned how to pump up your muscles. I said, you have to be really into it. You have to be inside the bicep. You have to be inside your chest when you pump up. Can you just go through the motion? So you will never come to where you're going. I said, this is like hopeless.

So anyway, so then they started really getting serious about working out and getting the pump and searching for the pump. When did you start to, I guess, was it around when you became a bigger business, investing in real estate? When did you become sort of politically activated in terms of wanting to be involved in politics? wanting to be involved in politics. Well, that happened much later. But look, I was very interested in learning about it when I started dating Maria, I remember, in the late 70s.

She took me home to Washington to meet her parents. I went up to her and sport and all that stuff. And when I was hanging out with them, they always talked about policy and about solving problems. How do we get a better education system? What do we do with after-school programs? How do we create more preschool programs where government takes care of the preschool so

that parents can drop off their kids when they go to work and all that stuff? So I listened to all of those things. I thought it was kind of like something that I have never thought about. How do we solve other people's problems? Because I was kind of like thinking about solving my own problem. About your chest and your triceps. How do I become the biggest bodybuilder, the most famous bodybuilder? How can I get into movies?

How can I make millions of dollars? It's totally self-centered. It was kind of like, first you have to build yourself in order to be able to help others. You were thinking that? Always thinking that, yeah. I have to first build myself, build myself.

But now hearing the Shrivers and the Kennedys talk about always helping other people and stuff, I thought it was very attractive. I thought it's great to start thinking about that. So I started thinking about it. Then I got involved in Special Olympics, and then I started becoming the international coach of Special Olympics, traveling around the world and promoting Special Olympics.

And then eventually I started, you know, President Bush, I remember in 1990, appointed me to be the chairman of the President's Council on Fitness. But did you have a party affiliation at that time? Yeah, I was always a Republican. But with all the Kennedys around, you know, how did you fundamentally clash with that? What was your point of contention with Democratic policy versus Republican? Well, there was no clash. It was just two different philosophies i mean they didn't complain that i like the white car and they maybe like the black car no i know i like but there's a and they like the white seats or something so there's no reason for arguing i just did a different way of looking at things

than they had which was fundamentally what fundamentally conservative because i came from a socialistic country so to me that was fiscally conservative yeah Fundamentally conservative because I came from a socialistic country. So to me, that was kind of like... Fiscally conservative. Yeah. Fiscally conservative, militarily conservative, law enforcement conservative. Socially conservative, no.

Well, in some areas, but not in other areas. Yeah. Like, for instance, I always felt kind of like, okay, personally, I'm not for abortion. Yeah.

But would I be the one that is saying to people that you cannot have a portion? No, of course not. People should choose for themselves what they want to do. So I can have my philosophy, but it doesn't mean that I have to force it on someone else. So I was always very open-minded about those things. And I think America helped me a lot to be socially more in the center and more acceptable. You know, for instance, I come from a country where I saw the first black person when I was 19. Yeah. Think about that. I never grew up with a black person. Yeah. So now I come over here to America. So I had to kind of educate myself about the history about blacks and the slavery and all this kind of stuff,

and to fight for equality and being for equality, and then realizing how Austria got into this trouble in the first place with Hitler and the Second World War, how they went after Jews and after anyone that was not like them. And so then I said to myself, well, that was the wrong direction to go. My father was part of that. And so what I wanted to do is I wanted to be a different generation and I wanted to be a generation of inclusion and acceptance where everyone kind of like embraces themselves and each other and kind of Democrats and Republicans alike respect everybody but have your own philosophy but still be able to work with the other side. Let me ask you a question because it was sort of like something, and maybe you don't answer it, but the way you characterize your childhood post-war and your father's and the men of your father's generation is that there was a lot of guilt and anger and shame. But do you think that it was equally divided between people that felt bad for what they were included in and also people who were pissed off they lost the war?

Absolutely. There was half of them that didn't believe in Hitler. Yeah. And they were embarrassed. They were ashamed of the whole thing. Yeah. And they were pissed off that this happened in the first place. Right.

Then there was the other half that were pissed off that they lost the war. Yeah. And then they were drunk all the time and they were, you know, kind of in pain because they were in the war. And my father, for instance, he had shrapnel moving around in his body. He had back surgery and he had broken back and he had all kinds of, he had malaria. So he wakes up sometimes at night and screaming and all of that. So it was like, and the only way they could cope

with all of that stuff is by drinking. So sometimes my dad would come home drunk on Friday night, especially at the end of the week, you know, drunk, and then he would just scream all night long and, you know, smack us around and all that stuff. So, I mean, it was like a terrible effect. So I wanted to kind of like be the next generation and to show to people that within one generation,

you can actually go and say, no, never again this. We're going to go in a different direction. This generation is going to go in a different direction. We're going to go and be inclusive. And, you know, first of all, I have to say that I grew up with a Jewish mentor. Yeah. So to me, it was- No, not a leader. It was a guy by the name of Gerstl that when I was 15 years old, he was a Catholic and a Jew.

Yeah. So he officially was a Catholic just to get along better in Austria, but I mean, he was a Jew. Yeah. And so, and he taught us and embraced everything we did and got us numbers and barbers and books to study and always kind of like told us that we have to be as smart as we are strong and mentally strong. Really?

So this guy was a guy who, he said he was Catholic, but wasn't. Well, and he also said he was a Jew. But he was. So officially. He was hiding. Not hiding, no. He just went to the Catholic church and also went to the synagogue. So, I mean, he just did both because he was married to a Catholic woman.

So he did kind of both. But it's interesting about the Jews is they put a premium on education. Is that, you know, that was the way they got by. This was fantastic. Because you have to understand that I was so in awe of him saying, I want you to run around with a book of Plato. And I said, why?

And he says, because Plato was the one that talked about sound mind, sound body. He says, you should study that. Why did he say that? What did he mean by that? You should be reading about that every day. He says, remember that we Jews have been taking everything in history. He says, it was thousands of years ago they took everything from us.

Hundreds of years ago they took everything. And just recently in the Second World War, they again took everything from us. So what did we do to kind of fight that? We started gaining intelligence. We started educating ourselves. We now stress that to our young kids, to everybody, education, education, education, learning, learning, learning. It says why? Because no one can steal your brain. No one can steal your knowledge from you. So make sure to always have knowledge and to stress. And so that's how I grew up. It was with the age of 15, having someone talk to me, sense into me.

And in a calm way, someone that I admired, someone that I loved because he got trophies for us for the weightlifting competition. He had a son that was studying medicine later on and then became a prominent doctor in Austria. So he was kind of the first guy that I kind of knew that was Jewish. And so I said to myself, we are all the same. So that's the way I looked at it then. So from that point on and then in bodybuilding, everyone was competing at that same stage, blacks and whites and Chinese and Japanese and Indians and this and that. Everyone was treated equally.

So I learned also inclusion and kind of acceptance and seeing everyone with the same value. Yeah, yeah. So it was wonderful. And Weta, Joe Weta was, of course, also a Jew that actually brought me to America. And Ben Weta, his brother, they were very open about this. When the AAU in the old days in America were prejudiced like hell,

and they did not let any AAU member win the Mr. America competition. A black person. Yeah. Black person. Yeah. So only whites won. Yeah.

And so guys like Sergio Liver, that was much better than the white guy was. And, you know, Harold Poole got beaten by Vern Weaver in 1963 because he was black. So they then came to the IFBB, which was Wheeler's organization. And the Wheeler's treated everyone with respect and equally. And that's the federation that I joined then. So when you get going in politics, you know, because I was watching some stuff, and I know what your concerns are now, you know, because I was watching some stuff, and I know what your concerns are now, you know, and you're still a civil servant and a public advocate for what you

believe in. But, you know, the alignment, because climate change is a big concern for you. Or pollution. Right. More so. Because climate change is kind of like, it's the result of a pollution. Right. More so. Because climate change is kind of like, it's the result of pollution. Right. And so if we wipe out pollution, we can wipe out all of those other problems.

Well, I mean, but what I'm trying to figure out is that, like, given your position as governor and as a political thinker, you aligned yourself pretty early on with Milton Friedman and another Jew. You aligned yourself pretty early on with Milton Friedman and another Jew. And the idea of free market and then the free market system, which is still operative, became sort of untethered and regulations broke down. And there's really no way to separate the free market from pollution on some level. Have you shifted your ideas around policy in terms of that? Well, I can tell you right now that there is a lot of money that can be made in the green energy sector. And we in California have shown that. I mean, when they say we can't get off oil because this will be terrible for our economy, it's the biggest bullshit I've ever heard.

Because in California, we have started to get off oil, and we started building solar, and we started building the hydrogen highway. We started building battery plants and also Tesla. Remember that Tesla started, they had the first factory up here in the Bay Area. And in the Bay Area, when I was governor, we got them to plant. And now Tesla is the number one and the richest auto company in the world.

Their value is over $300 billion, which is all of the car manufacturers together don't have that value. That's how rich they are. That's how much money have that value. That's how rich they are. That's how much money they have. That's how valuable they are. They've been building cars for a little bit over 20 years. So this just shows to you green. They're building green cars, only electric cars. So it's a huge explosion economically to have Tesla.

And it is like building our solar plants. And then people have literally left the oil fields in Bakersfield and gone to go and start building solar panels and stuff like that. We have, I started as the governor, the Million Solar Roof Initiative. It is a program where we have a, where we built a million solar roofs. And just a few years ago,

we built the million solar roof. So imagine that, how much energy that creates. So I think the action is between the Democrats and the Republicans. The Democrats love renewable energy. And don't ask me why this is a Democratic and Republican issue because that's really stupid. Well, it's because corporate lobbyists. No, no, there's nothing to do with it because you can have corporations

that build solar panels too. It is nothing to do with it. It is just ideologically, somehow they feel that there is no climate change and there is really no threat to the climate and to the temperatures and all this stuff that conservatives feel. And I don't know why.

I cannot tell you what's inside the brain. But I mean, the bottom line is, it is what it is. Remember, that's what Robert De Niro always said in his movie. It is what it is, which is true. So therefore, I say, OK, you Democrats love renewable energy. I fall on both sides. I'm falling to the liberal side and the conservative side when it comes to that. You love the renewable energy.

So we have 20% of renewable energy in America. Let's up that renewable energy to 40%, which means we add 100% more renewable energy, right? From 20% to 40%, which means we add 100% more renewable energy, right? From 20% to 40%. Yeah. In nuclear power, we have 20%. We create 20% of clean energy through nuclear power. Let's up that from 20% to 40%, just like with renewable. And now we have an increase of 100% of nuclear power.

Now we have altogether 80% 100% of nuclear power. Now we have altogether 80% of clean air in America. The Republicans like the nuclear power idea. The Democrats like the renewable. That's where the deal is. And I guarantee you down the line,

that's where the deal will be. You think we'll make it in time? Definitely we'll be in time. Absolutely. Okay. We're not running out of time, okay? I mean, let me tell you something. Yeah. The environmentalists always Okay. We're not running out of time, okay? I mean, let me tell you something. Yeah.

The environmentalists always talk about that we're running out of time and all this stuff. If we were running out of time, they wouldn't go and slow down windmill building and solar plant building with permitting processes. And it takes you four years to get the permits and all this stuff. It's a bunch of nonsense. If there's really an emergency, let's go and cut all these permitting processes. I think there's an emergency. And let's go and start building all this stuff. So you're saying it's a permitting issue.

It's a permitting issue, but you cannot have it both ways. You cannot scream on one side, it's an emergency, and then another side hoarding up those kind of projects. We know, for instance, that the more freeways that we build and the more lanes we build, the less there's traffic jams. But that didn't work out. What do you guess is the biggest where we did work out? For a while.

When I was governor, we built $11 billion worth of infrastructure. It still takes me an hour to get to Santa Monica. But it's better because government is always 30 years behind. So we should be having those freeways that we have now. We should have had them 30 years ago. Now we should have three times as much. So the point I'm making is that liberals have to understand and the environmentalists have to understand that in order to cut down on pollution, we have to cut down on traffic jams because the traffic jams, the more you go slow with the cars like that and you stop and you go

and you stop and you go, that's what creates pollution. So you're saying bureaucracy. So we have to go and get rid of the traffic jams by building more freeways and more lanes. And the only way we can do that is to get the cut through the permitting process, to be faster with it so that we can look at this. Our high-speed rail, since the 80s, we've been talking about high-speed rail in California. It's still not done. But whose fault is that? This is because of the way the laws work and the way the restrictions to the permitting process and all this.

What do you think why we have homeless? Do you think the homeless was created by the homeless? There were people that just walked out of the home and said, I want to be homeless. No, it was created by government. Like Ronald Reagan always said, government is the biggest problem and the biggest obstacle, which is true.

Who created the homeless issue? It was the people for not giving you permits to build more apartment buildings. So they held back their apartment buildings. I don't know if that's true because it has to do with jobs. It has to do with class. It has to do with opportunity. Yeah, but what do you think the opportunities

come? If you go and you build all of a sudden a million more homes or a million more condominiums, a million more apartments. But you also have to give them a safety net for a living to survive. I mean, you can't just give people a house. The first thing you need to have is a safety net for a living to survive. I mean, you can't just give people a house. The first thing you need to have is a home for these people.

The people cannot afford a home anymore. When you have a limited amount of homes, that means the value of homes goes up because it's a limited amount. Right now in Santa Monica, a studio costs $3,000. A one-bedroom costs $4,000. A one-bedroom costs $4,000. A two-bedroom costs $5,000. Who can afford that? But there's also the same thing you're talking about, permits. The lack of regulation also led to the housing bubble, right?

But that's what I'm saying. It's regulations and permits. But you need regulation. You need it, but not to go to the extent where you hold up. There was a belief in the 80s, I remember that very well, by not building would mean that people would not move to California. We don't want an explosion in California,

so let's not build. Let's not create the infrastructure for future generations where we have 40, 50 million people. They came anyway. The 40 million people are here. When I came to this country, there was 18 million people. Now there are million people. They came anyway. The 40 million people are here. When I came to this country, there was 18 million people. Now there are 40 million.

They came anyway. Even though they had restrictions, even though they had the permitting done, they were tough on permitting, the regulations and all that stuff, they should have just opened it up to the free market. The more that people want to have apartments, the more you build apartments.

Then it would have kept the value down and it would have been affordable. Now, the poor guy that is making $1,500 a month, how can he afford a $2,000 apartment? He can't afford it. But the free market doesn't stop untethered greed. Free market is always going to be exploited, so you can't always trust the private sector to solve the problems. No, no, no. You can go and work on that, but not on stopping to build. They have stopped to build. So now we are short of a million apartments. If we would have a million apartments more,

the prices would come down and all the- But are there a million jobs? Millions of jobs to build those buildings. Are you kidding me? Look, the city knows they made a mistake. The environmentalists know they made a mistake. And now they have to just correct it. The question is, can the same mind, remember what Einstein said, the same mind that created the problem cannot solve it.

So that is the question. Can the same mind in Los Angeles or in Sacramento or in any of those big cities that created the problem, can they also solve it? But there's also drugs, mental illness, bad health care. You can throw all of this into the bag in order to devalue the mistakes that were made in the 80s and 90s about not building enough buildings. The fact still is, LA has done a horrible job in planning, in planning on transportation, in planning on building tunnels and bridges, in planning on housing, and all of this stuff. And remember, no one held anyone back to create more local clinics where people can go that are addicted, that can go and get help and all this medical help and all that stuff. So it's all available. This is what it's all about is when you run a city, you have to know of those kind of

things. And you cannot look at it in a political way, in a democratic way, or in a Republican way. Democrats and republicans have to work together to solve those problems. How close were you to being the presidential nominee? Well, I could not even run for president. But there was an actual movement to change the constitution. It takes two-thirds of the states and two-thirds of the votes in Congress to go and change the constitution. So that's not a priority right now. What is the priority? Was it a disappointment to you?

No, I mean, it's like everything that I was able to do in America was because of America. I mean, think about the career I've had. Think about the life I've had. I mean, no one in the world has this kind of life. No one. That I can guarantee you. And it was all possible because of America, because of the generosity in America, because of its political system, its democracy, and because it's the greatest country in the world with the most opportunities.

So I saw that firsthand. And so I'm not going to complain about the only job that I can't do, which is to be president. Oh, poor Arnold cannot run for president of the United States. We feel so sorry for you, Arnold. No, no, it's not going to happen. OK, so I see that I'm always there to be supportive to a Democratic administration or Republican administration. Makes Republican administration. It makes no difference. I want to help to make America stay number one.

It seems like you're genuinely afraid of the possibility of fascism here. I am. After the statement you made after January 6th. I'm doing everything that I can to support democracy and to make sure that we're going in the right direction. Because of what you know personally. It's just democracy is very vulnerable, not only in America, but worldwide. I mean, you see what's happening.

I know, yeah. How these right-wing guys get elected and then all of a sudden take certain rights away. And even in Israel, they have this situation now. And so that is alarming. And I think that we should be aware of it and we should talk about it all the time. And I think that it's not going to happen in America. I don't think it's – I think that we're going to protect our democracy and have great hopes for America because it's still the number one country in the world. Of course. And what have you learned from,

you know, your personal humiliation in terms of how that's affected the way you think about, you know, life and your sensitivity to other people, you know, having to accept your mistakes publicly? Oh, you know, I don't think it has any effect on that. No? No, because, look, I am the first one, I think from the time I was a kid, I knew that I do great things and I also screw up. Yeah.

And I think that as I grew up, that happened. And then as I got up, that happened. And then as I got older, that happened. And then at one point, it really happened to really an extent where it cost me my marriage. And so I don't think that that changed me as a person other than, you know, you can't take the toothpaste and put it back in a tube. So that doesn't work. So you have to then deal with that. And I think to me the most important thing was to recognize that it was only my fault, that there was no fight in the family.

My wife was just a victim of it and an innocent bystander. And that I had to then work with her very closely to raise our kids. So there's no effect on our kids. So that was the thing. But the way I look at the world, because I was always a very generous person. I was always a very giving person. I was a very giving person. I was always a person that felt that there has to be a great combination of, you know, taking care of yourself and building your own career. And in order at the same time, you know, worrying about your neighborhood and your state, your city, your country.

And give something back to that also. And so that was always kind of my take and my philosophy. How are you getting along with everybody? Great. Everything's good? I have a great relationship with my ex-wife. I have a great relationship with my kids. Grandkids now? I have a fantastic relationship with the grandkids. They come over to the house regularly. How are the horses and the donkey? The horses and the donkeys and the pig, Schnelly, and the dogs, Schnitzel and

The pig, Schnelly, and the dogs, Schnitzel and Dutchie and Noodle, all of them are just doing fine. Are you still vegan? I never was a vegan. Oh. I was, you're right, I was part vegan. I always said that I've reduced. That's not vegan. No, no. But what it means is that I reduced my meat intake by 70%.

Oh, yeah. Approximately. my meat intake by 70% approximately, meaning that I have maybe once a week a steak or a schnitzel, a wiener schnitzel, something like that. But throughout the week, I eat mostly vegetables. That was because of what, cholesterol? It's both.

I think that Jim Cameron, the director, who is a good friend of mine, so he and I talked about it and he just felt very strongly that it has two great advantages when you eat less meat environmental

in his case no meat yeah but in my case less meat it is number one the effect that it is healthier for your body

yeah for your heart yeah everything less inflammation in the body you don't have to do the stupid you know Number one, the effect that it is healthier for your body, for your heart and everything. Less inflammation in the body. You don't have to do the stupid, you know, plunge pools and cold pools. You do that? I don't because I just eat less meat.

There's animal products and stuff like that. So I do it more permanent. And then also environmentally because 38%, 28% of the pollution comes from raising livestock. From cow farts. Or the cow farts, but I mean raising stock, livestock. And so we could do better than that by eating less meat. So that's the idea. My girlfriend had an interesting question I just wanted to ask.

Was there a time when you were learning English where, you know, people who were in the room with you were speaking candidly thinking you didn't understand, but you did understand? Well, yes, I think that I have to say that Americans are kind of like very odd about all this stuff. Yeah. Because they are very accommodating. Yeah. And understanding when you're a stuff. Yeah. Because they are very accommodating. Yeah. And understanding when you're a foreigner. Yeah. And they would then spell it out for you

and they would explain it to you. Yeah, yeah. And this is what it means and all that kind of stuff. But at the other hand, when I wanted to get into movies, they made very clear to me, Americans don't like to hear foreign accents as a leading man.

Yeah. He says people have had terrible time and almost it was impossible for anyone to become a leading man with an accent. And so he says, it's not going to happen to you. You're not going to be successful with that. with that. And so, they felt very strongly that people felt that people wanted

to hear people talk like John Wayne or like Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson or like Alan Brando or whatever, but not, you know,

like Klaus-Maria Brandau or something like that. But you made your own version of it. The guy, the Mexican guy next door just did your lines when I introduced you.

But it's exactly what I talk about in the book again is sell, sell, sell. So I believe that if I want to be successful in America, not just in bodybuilding, but in general, people have to go and become familiar with my accent. Yeah. And so I started doing in the 70s hundreds of TV interviews and hundreds of radio interviews so that everyone in America hears my accent. And then eventually it became so accepted that we even had a Hans and Franz on Saturday Night Live come along, and they were my cousins all of a sudden. Here we are to look for Uncle Arnold. And while we are looking for Uncle Arnold, we are here to pump you up. And you little girly man with your flabber lunch around the waist, look at you. I'm going to pick you up and throw you through the air so you land in your own baby poop. So this was kind of the dialogue. And it was hilarious. to pick you up and throw you through the air so you land in your own baby poop. You know,

so this was kind of the dialogue and it was hilarious. And I said to myself, that's when you have arrived. When people now on Saturday Night Live, the biggest comedy show in the world

has now two characters that are imitating my accent and exaggerating it. So I started exaggerating their exaggeration. So it was like really funny. Then they had me on the show and Danny

DeVito and I was on the show and we did the show to promote Twins I remember and all this stuff and we became all very good friends and we almost did a movie about

Hans and Franz actually finding finding your uncle Arnold. Exactly. So now like to wrap it up you feel your voice in the public conversation

is important to you. And what do you feel your responsibility is? Outside of the book, which is fundamentally a self-help book, but what do you feel your civic responsibility is right now? I continue doing everything that I did as governor. I continue fighting for a clean environment. I continue fighting for great education for everybody,

for after-school programs, for health care for everybody, a home for everybody. I mean, all of those issues I fight through the Schwarzenegger Institute at USC. And we have the environmental conference in Vienna every year where we bring

political parties from all different sectors together, from the Green Party, the Conservative Party, the Socialist Party, everyone that we bring together to show to the people that it doesn't have to be a political issue and all that stuff. So, you know, I just feel privileged that I'm able to continue on doing my work in public policy

and then giving something back to the community. But at the same time, I recognize the fact that more and more people look at me as a motivator to do motivational speeches and talks and to write motivational articles. And that's why we have the newsletter to be a motivational force on the internet when everything is negative, to have something positive out there. And that's why I also wrote this book, because everyone felt like, hey, why just talk about it? Let's go and put those points and those tools that you always talk about. Let's put them together into one book and then do a book, a motivational book, where you tell people,

here are the tools that I used and that I discovered in my life that made me successful. Okay. Well, it was an honor talking to you. Well, thank you. It was life that made me successful. Okay. Well, it was an honor talking to you. Well, thank you. It was fun to talk to you. Okay, buddy. You're fun to hang out with. Good.

Thank you. And my triceps look all right, right? Your triceps, your brachialis, intercostals, reutelted, everything is pumping up. I'll put my shirt back on. Okay. I think that went alright and I got a kick out of it it was it was

you know I've met many people and talked to many people here who are unlike anybody else and it's always kind of

amazing the book Be Useful Seven Tools for Life is available now. Please hang out for a minute, will you? Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category.

And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting

and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of backley construction punch your ticket to kids night on saturday march 9th at 5 p.m in rock city at torontorock.com

okay so to hear what i was thinking right after arnold left the garage you can get my debrief with brendan as part of this week's full Marin bonus episode. It's beyond that he's a governor or a movie star. He's just fucking Arnold. Yeah, you could see it from the dudes who were working next door. They had no context other than, you know, that guy is in the movies that we liked. He is that guy. And I've never experienced that with anyone else

other than Danny Trejo, specifically in a Mexican neighborhood. But there is an elevation to the feeling of excitement because of what he represents. You know, like when I was doing a Marin that day with Trejo and we were in Highland Park, I mean, you know, people were coming out in windows. Machete! Machete! in Highland Park. I mean, you know, people were coming out

in windows. They were like, machete! And it was sort of the same thing. Like, these guys next door could not fucking believe it. I could see,

because, like, you really got a strain to look through the lattice. And when he stuck his head out, the guy's eyes just, like, bugged out of his head. Like, he couldn't believe it.

He couldn't even process it. And all this guy's got to fucking do is say, I'm back. Yeah. And people lose their minds. It's amazing. Oh, they love it. But all this guy's got to fucking do is say, I'm back. Yeah. And the people lose their minds. It's amazing. Oh, they love it.

But, you know, I do too because anytime he was doing that thing that he turns on, it's like waiting for Will Ferrell to do something funny. As soon as Earl does any of those lines or tries to be funny in any way, it's so specifically his, it just killed me. Anyway, it's so specifically his. It's it was it just killed me to get all the weekly bonus episodes and all WTF episodes ad free. Sign up by clicking the link in the episode description or go to WTF pod dot com and click on WTF plus next week. Judas Priest front man Rob Halford is on Monday and then a double header with Doug Stanhope and Louis Katz on Thursday. Now I will try to play some guitar. Thank you. so Boomer lives. Monkey in La Fonda.

Cat angels everywhere.