February 1, 2022 • 45 mins
What do pottery and pot do for Seth Rogen? The writer and actor talks to Roxane about the pleasures of making something that doesn’t matter, the secrets of his longstanding collaborations, and about what he brings to the weed business. Plus, Roxane tells how she got eaten by an edible.
Mentions:
● Euphoria: https://www.hbo.com/euphoria
● Houseplant: https://www.houseplant.com
● Yearbook, by Seth Rogen: https://www.yearbookthebook.com
● Empire Records movie: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112950/?ref_=vp_back
Credits: Curtis Fox is the producer. Yessenia Moreno is the intern. Production help from Kaitlyn Adams. Theme music by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex Sugiura.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
At some point you make a choice about who you
are what you want. My wife, Debbie, and I recently
started watching Euphoria on HBO. It's a show I had
kind of avoided because I had seen part of the
pilot when it originally aired. For whatever reason, it just
(00:24):
wasn't for me. I mean, high school stuck. The first
time around, I had no desire to go back. Man
hate high School. But since the show debuted, people have
continued talking about it, and so I wanted to understand
and be part of the conversation, and I decided to
give it another chance, which worked out really well because
(00:44):
this time around, I am loving the show. First of all, Ashtray,
give me a show about him and him alone. I
need nothing else. So we're five or six episodes into
the first season, and I have to say I am
so stressed out for every single young woman on this show.
In every episode between the predatory men and they're absolutely
(01:08):
terrible decision making, a little bit of addiction and some
other regular adolescent issues. They have me watching half of
each episode with my fingers over my eyes and the
other half chatting, oh my god, baby, what are you doing?
From luminary? This is the Roxanne Gay Agenda the Bad
(01:29):
Feminist podcast of Your Dreams. I am Roxanne Gay, your
favorite bad feminist, and today I want to talk about edibles.
The lowest point of my first experience with edibles was
probably when I tied myself to my bed with a
sheet because I worried that I was going to fall
off the bed and then off the end of the world.
(01:51):
I don't have a lot of experience with drugs. I
was raised to be a good girl, and old habits
die hard. I went to boarding school and then fancy college,
so I always had acts us to good drugs. But
I was terrified that the first time I tried drugs,
I would die, and then my parents would find out
I had done drugs, and my ghosts would have to
live with that shame for all of eternity. And then
I moved to California, where things are a lot more mellow.
(02:14):
One night, I had dinner with a friend and her
friend who owned several dispensaries, and this friend gave me
an edible and I knew that several months later marijuana
would be legal, so law abiding citizen ok a nerd
that I am. I decided to wait because I didn't
want to break the law. I recognize how lame that sounds,
I really really do. So the following January, marijuana was
(02:35):
finally legal, and this was like four years ago. Dispensaries
that looked like slick apple stores were all bright light
and wide spaces, concrete floors, lots of natural wood. They
were all open, and the staff in these beautiful places
would ask you like, what kind of high are you
looking for? Man? And they would walk you carefully through
the different kinds of weed and CBD products available. It
(02:57):
was delightful. And then they would put your per just
is and a cute little shopping bag and you could
simply just go on your way. Now, if you didn't
want to go to a store for whatever reason, you
can just order the wheat on the internet and someone
will just bring it to your front door. And of course,
all of this is happening while thousands of black men
who were incarcerated for marijuana possession or dealing remain incarcerated.
(03:21):
It's kind of a bitter, jagged pill to swallow to
see who benefits from certain kinds of legislation and who
gets left behind. But I digressed. In January, I had
surgery and one night, when the pain pills had run out,
I was alone in my apartment and board and still
tender at the incisions and feeling sorry for myself. And
so I found those edibles that the friend of a
(03:42):
friend had given me, and I carefully read the instructions,
and it said that the appropriate dose was three small
squares of chocolate. I consulted the Internet, and the Internet
seemed to agree, and so I took all three squares
of chocolate. And I was really ready for a nice, mellow,
long sleep that I could sink into. And the squares
tasted like chocolate infused with weed, which is to say
they tasted disgusting. I felt nothing. I continued watching TV.
(04:07):
After forty five minutes, I had decided it had been
way too long since I received the edibles and they
had lost their potency. You should also know I hadn't
eaten solid food in more than three weeks, so my
tolerance was at an all time low. I was so very,
very wrong. An hour later, the room started spinning wildly,
(04:27):
and I very much wanted it to stop. So I
took a deep breath and I sat up. I held
on to the edge of my couch took a sip
of water. Then I decided that it was probably best
for me to be in bed, so I stood slowly
and walked even more slowly to my bedroom. I lay
down and I closed my eyes. That was one of
(04:49):
many mistakes, because once I was horizontal, my heart started pounding.
I was convinced I was having a heart attack, and
I just knew my mother was going to get this
terrible phone call informing her that her daughter had died
of drugs. What you need to know about my mom
is that she has this really ridiculous thing about marijuana.
She has never tasted a drop of alcohol, she has
(05:10):
never smoked up, but she reads about alcohol and drugs
extensively and believes they are unholy substances that are going
to bring about any person's downfall. She has a real
problem with weed in particular, and it's so hilarious and
almost adorable if it wasn't so annoying. She will, in
the random conversations just that we're having, will hold forth
(05:30):
at length about marijuana as a dangerous gateway drug, as
the root of so many great societal problems. And I'm like, Mom,
nobody smoking weed is causing any problems I assure you,
if she smells marijuana anywhere, she will loudly declare that
she smells marijuana. She is suspicious of anyone who looks
like they partake, and her hatred for marijuana makes me
(05:52):
wish I enjoyed it more, just to be contrary. Anytime
she starts arguing against it, I find myself passionately to
ending it, like it's my job. The desire to rebel,
I suppose, never dies. So there I was, and the
bed was spinning in one direction and the room was
spinning in the other. I was desperately thirsty, and on
(06:13):
my nightstand there was a bottle of water, and I
had about three SIPs left, and so I knew I
was going to have to ration those SIPs because I
had no idea when it was going to be safe
to leave my bed. The spinning got worse, and I
worried that I was going to fall off, So I
did the only thing that made sense at the time.
I tied myself to the bed with my flat sheets
so I would be safe and secure. And I tied
myself really tightly because I was so scared. And then
(06:34):
I took a little, tiny, tiny slip of water and
I wondered what would happen when I needed to use
the bathroom. I sat up and swung my feet off
the bed, pressing my toes into the carpet. I stood,
and this was the second mistake. I was still, but
the room was not. In addition to the spinning, the
floor was undulating in waves. I looked at the bathroom,
(06:54):
which was only four steps away, and I wondered if
there was enough length in the sheet to keep me
secure while I made my way to the toilet. Unfortunately
there was not. I only made it as far as
a sink, and I knew that I could not risk
releasing myself. So I got back in bed with a
full bladder, and I wondered if I should phone a friend.
But I was mortified by just how poorly I was
(07:14):
handling what I thought was a really small dosage of edibles.
So my heart was pounding and I was dying. I
just knew I was dying. I wanted to write notes
to everyone I loved, but it was really hard to
make my fingers work, so I just gave up on that.
I hoped that they knew I loved them, and I
called one and I said calmly. I thought that I
(07:35):
was dying of a heart attack and could they please
come get me so I could die in a hospital
instead of my apartment, where it could be days before
my body was discovered. The dispatcher asked me a few questions,
and I said I was home alone and that my
front door was locked. There We're going to just have
to bust it down. He asked me if I could
find my wallet and open the door, and I said
I couldn't because I was tied to my bed. And
(07:56):
I said they were going to have to bring a
sledgehammer because it was a really strong door. And then
I said, it's only my third time ever using marijuana products,
and I waited until it was legal because that information
felt so important at the time. The dispatcher assured me
that the e m t s are going to be
there soon, and that's when time refracted. Hours later, I
was still dying and no one had come to save me.
(08:19):
So I called nine one one again to let them
know I was still dying, and they said, ma'am, it
has been two minutes since you last called. They also
said that the e m T s were actually at
my front door already, but I needed to let them in.
I reminded them that I was tied to the bed,
and the E M T said, well, could you please
try to free yourself, which I guess I did. I
(08:40):
have no idea, how so then I took about five
hours holding onto the wall like a spy in a
spy movie, and I eventually made it to the front door,
maybe another five hours later. I opened the door and
there were a bunch of incredibly hot firemen, because it
was Los Angeles, where pretty much everyone is incredibly active,
(09:00):
and I explained that I had waited until marijuana was legal,
and they just seemed genuinely sad that my first edible
experience was so terrible, and it was just so kind
of them. I also explained I was, you know, recovering
from surgery, and from then on I was in and
out of consciousness. And then I was in an ambulance
in boxers and a T shirt and flip flops and stitches,
(09:23):
and then I was in a very dirty, grim downtown hospital,
and then the nurses were laughing at me good naturedly
for having such a bad trip. And then I was
in a hospital room with a woman who was drugs
seeking and down on her luck and dealing with kidney
issues and husband issues, and so long story short, I
spent two nights in the hospital and I was still
high when I left. I've been thinking about edibles because
(09:50):
my guest today is the one and only Seth Rowing.
As many people know, Seth's experiences with weed are extensive
and much more fortunate than my own, my little Bremen.
Seth first came to public attention in with a television
show Freaks and Geeks. He was still a teenager playing
(10:10):
a teenager, and he was funny as hell. He wasn't
just a pretty face. Though. With his friend and longtime
collaborator Evan Goldberg, he started writing the movie super Bad,
also about high school, and by the time he made
that movie, he was a little too old to play
the lead, so he played an inappropriate cop. Was the
African He was like, he He's Jewish, so we have
(10:32):
an African jew wearing a hoodie tonight. Over the years,
Seth Rogan has been incredibly busy, not just acting but
writing and producing. To say the least, he is prolific
when he is also an increasingly accomplished potter and marijuana connoisseur.
In two thousand nineteen, in Canada, he co founded house Plant,
(10:52):
a business that combines those two passions, weed and beautifully
made accessories that help people to smoke it, and in
one house Plants started doing business here in the United States.
He talks about all of this and more and his
hilarious and often moving memoir Yearbook, which also came out
in Seth Rogan, thank you so much for joining the
(11:13):
Roxane Gay Agenda. Thank you so much for having me.
That story is unbelievable. It was. It was wild. It
was just so so wild, and I couldn't believe it
was happening to me, and that I was so ridiculous
as to call the the nine one one and then
the whole ship bang. But I was just like, I
don't want to do. You're not the first person that
(11:35):
I've encountered who has called nine one one from eating
wheat edibles, And yeah, I was just so paramount. It
was so bad. And I've, as you've said, I've done
a lot of drugs throughout my life. The only times
I have felt like I truly wish like I could
make an end was from eating wheat food. Like it
(11:57):
it is. It is a different thing it really is.
I will take as smoking high any day, but in
edible I'm done with edibles, and edibles are done with me.
That some really bad. My dad wants to accidentally ate
a very powerful weed brownie that I had left in
my refrigerator, and uh, and he thought he was dying
and and it was a similar thing. And my mother called,
(12:18):
like really in a in a state. It was like,
there's something seriously wrong with your father. And then I
was like, did he eat a brownie from my fridge?
And they were like yeah, I like that that's what happened,
that he's not dying. You don't know what's dangerous until
you try. Let you tied to the bed. That's my motto.
So last year, I think, or maybe the year before,
you sent me a beautiful piece of pottery. It's a
(12:41):
small vase. It's green and yellow and it's just really
really lovely. And of course, because this is a podcast,
I can't show everyone, but I have been loving watching
your pottery journey and everyone I know, well not everyone,
but two of my friends have already started taking pottery lessons.
I'm ready to get a wheel and get going. How
(13:02):
on earth did you get in the pattern. Um, my
wonderful wife Laura actually is is how I got into pottery.
She um, I've had a lot of hobbies over there.
I guess I've always like like and I always wanted
to like make art in like some sort of tangible
art in some way. And I'm just like a bad
painter and a bad drawer, Like I just like it
(13:23):
didn't it doesn't come out of my hand, what's in
my head? And um and yeah, and then finally, after
years of imploring me to try it, we like went
and took a pottery class and um in West Hollywood,
and and I just loved it and and very quickly
we got our own wheels. And I just found myself
like really kind of taking to it and really enjoying
(13:44):
it and and I yeah, and I was getting better
at I found like that was really nice that there
was like a market improvement, which I think is not
something I think like as as a writer and you know, filmmaker,
like I can't I can't definitively tell you I'm getting better.
Would like to. I think some things are getting better,
but like I don't, I can't always say, like I
(14:04):
don't always assume the next thing I make will be
the best thing I've made, you know what I mean?
But I think with a craft like pottery, what was
nice is like you you generally ascend, like I think,
because there's like a craft a craft like level to it,
rather than it being purely creative. There's like an approvement
you see in yourself that I that I find to
(14:26):
be very gratifying and and and and also very like, Uh,
it is orienting I think in a in a in
a world that I find uh disorienting at times. The
world is disorienting in so many ways. What does throwing
clay offer that writing and performing and producing doesn't? Like?
(14:47):
What is the thing that's unique about pottery? Well, a
few it's very singular, Like I think, like I love
how collaborative filmmaking is, but it is by nature like
very collaborative, and are working with a lot of people
all the time to like bring your vision to life.
And there's something that's kind of nice about just sitting
(15:08):
there yourself and doing this thing you know, um, And
the idea of creating something very tangible is very nice.
Um and and actually like something I can give to
people like um and then they will have it, Like
I think, um, like a movie or you know, things
like that, like there by nature something everyone has. And
it's interesting to be able to give people things that
(15:30):
only they have, you know. Um. And it's different in
a lot of ways. But I actually think I've started
to learn things from it that I can apply to
my other jobs in that like I do approach it
with like no, because I don't rely on it for
any like financial income or you know. And and I
I never like truly aspire to be like a Caramesis
(15:53):
really you know what I mean? But so I want
to get great at it and better at it. But
I have no like rules I'm following, and I have
no like ructure I'm following. And I think there has
been something about that that I found really freeing, um,
and something that I now look at things I'm writing
or getting ready to produce and I'm like, why, like
why are we being rigid with this when when when
(16:15):
it doesn't have to be rigid, we can kind of
do whatever we want, you know. Um. Yeah, that's interesting
that it's like giving you that permission to maybe be
less rigid with things that kind of demand a certain
amount of discipline. And and I like that idea of
having at least one artistic outlet where nothing's really at
stake other than your own pleasure. Because some people on
(16:36):
Instagram saying they don't like my face. Yeah, it's really not.
It is low stakes. There's one thing that A Stramas
has said to me that I that that I that
I now apply to everything. And I think it's like
you've probably noticed, as someone who collects um ceramics, as
I know you do, is like I think a lot
of people pick up a ceramic thing and they look
at the bottom of it. It's kind of where you
learn a lot about the person who made it. Weirdly,
(16:59):
it's where they'll often put their mark. You kind of
see how refined the thing is. Is it like very
well refined? Is there a perfect little foot? Is it
kind of a scrappy thing? Did they think like, it's
the bottom, I don't have to make it perfect looking,
or did they think like, no, it's the bottom, but
I will make it look I want it to be
representative of the piece as a whole. And I think
that that it's also like a Q I've taken where
(17:21):
like even the bottom, like the thing you're not even
supposed to be looking at is in many ways like
the most indicative of what you have made, and I
think like creatively, it's something I now can't stop thinking of.
Is like, even though it's the bottom, it doesn't mean
it's not an opportunity to show it's what whether you
(17:42):
like it or not, it will show people what your
sensibility is. Do you know what your sensibility is? I
think it's try I I think it is. I like
that there's some technical refinement to it. But I also
try to take big creative swings and and do things
that I don't think other people are doing, which I
(18:04):
do think applies to a lot of things I do.
And sometimes it's to the detriment of the finished product.
Sometimes it's not. Yeah not not all experiments are gonna
work out. So how do you teach yourself newer things now?
Are you still taking classes or are you just experimenting
in your studio both. I've taken workshop, I've taken workshops
(18:25):
from people. I've had people come and teach me things.
I took a glaze making online workshop with my wife Lauren,
and that's also been a very interesting thing. Is like
people come over a lot of our friends, like um
will come over and we have a we have a
little studio in our garage, and so we can kind
of show people how to do when we give them
a little lessons. And like, it's really interesting to see
(18:47):
that a lot of adults have kind of like tune
themselves out to like learning new things or don't like
being put in the position of like knowing nothing and
then trying a thing, because I think by the time
you're like, you know, when you're mid thirties, you're kind
of like I've done with that, Like I know what
I could do, what I can't do, and if I
don't feel like I could do it, I'm probably not
(19:08):
gonna try it, you know what I mean. But and
so it's really interesting to see how some people and
and I and I now look back and think like, oh,
it's nice that I try to learn a new thing.
When we were almost forty, we were like, oh, that's
like really dedicate to learning a new craft and really
try to take it, like not seriously, but like really
(19:29):
try to get good at it, you know. Um, And yeah,
it's interesting to see that, like some adults are just
very turned off by even like the concept of of
being taught something new. At this age. Yeah, you know,
I think a lot of times it's that I think
a lot of us remember what it felt like to
have to know very little, and unfortunately I still know
I know very little, and I think that idea of
(19:51):
having to surrender expertise can be very overwhelming, Like what
do you mean I have to like start at the
beginning again, it's you know, during the pandemic, I think
a lot of us took up different creative hobbies and
so I needed something that there was absolutely nothing at
stake for. And so I've been teaching myself how to
decorate caps. Oh my god, it's so amazing. It's just
(20:14):
so relaxing, and it's so fun, and there's all kinds
of little tools like and it's a really intense world,
like YouTube is um truly the whole world unto itself.
It's been humbling because my cakes are fucking ugly, but
they like pottery. I can definitely see a trajectory of improvement,
(20:35):
and I mean, you know, I'm going to get there
because it's not my full time thing. It never will be,
and so I don't need to rush it. But it's yeah,
it's humbling. Wheel like I do, I do use a
banding wheel. And you know, I love to put my
little creations on Instagram and there's always fucking Fred twenty
six like that's ugly, and I'm like, Fred, do you
(20:56):
have a mirror? Come on, don't worry about much of us.
Don't worry And that talks about like a mug she
posted like two years ago that was like great, and
there was one comment that was like that handle though,
and she was just like every time she's just like
that motherfucker that handle though. You make a handle. It's
always interesting. Everyone's an expert. Speaking of expertise, like when
(21:20):
it comes to commenting on something someone else has done,
it's I wouldn't you know. Someone was like, oh, you know,
you're piping, and I just think, do you know how
hard it is to like hold a piping bags steady
and keep the frosting firm enough to like make a flower.
It's not as easy as it looks, exactly very hard.
Try pulling a handle. I well, I've been watching Uh
(21:45):
I'm actually in the middle of the second season of
Blown Away. I don't know if Oh my god, it's
so addictive. I had no idea how elaborate like glassblowing
and making ceramics. Was it's a whole thing and it's
really impressive and I love how they make it seem
like everything is at stake to the next And the
(22:11):
English show. Yeah, there's this English show about pottery and
it's a bunch of ceramicists and you know, we have
to make sixteen plates and they have to all be
exactly the same. And I just get sue deeply deeply invested.
Hold on one second, Sorry, my dog just came in. Um. Now,
I one of the things I know you recently started,
(22:32):
not recently, but it came to the United States last year,
house plant. And I've noticed that there are some pottery pieces,
the Robert Lugo um which I bought and love and
he's incredible. He actually made me a vase with my
face on it and my book cover and like this
is the best? Is the best? Um? What is it
(22:54):
that opening house Plant has done for you? I think
a lot of people were not necessary at least surprised,
because you are such a great advocate for weed. But
like the records, the advocacy, you know, what, what are
you really trying to accomplish with house Plant? A few
things I think the most important things are we want
(23:16):
to be a great company. We want to I we
I often say we want to be the company that
we deserves. And I think, UM, I think we need
is truly like one of the great products there is.
And I think in a world where like our headphones
are kind of treated very nicely, and things that are
not nearly as nice or as good products or things
(23:39):
that are as additive to like my personal day to
day UM journey are are treated like UM respectfully and
and are given like they're do. That's that's kind of um.
You know that that that to me is very important
and culturally and legally, as you were saying, like weed
has a long way to go, and we want, you know,
(24:01):
to exist in a world where you know, there isn't
this like terrible you know, like underlying side to all
of the switches that it's still federally illegal in America.
There's tons of people in jail for it. Um. It
is often used as a way to get a first
offense on people and then to put them in the
(24:21):
system and then to keep you know, keep them there
for their entire lives. Potentially It's terrible. So you know,
that's something that is also incredibly important, is bringing as
much focus to that and advocacy to that and just
literally supporting these organizations like Last Prisoner Project and um,
you know, trying to directly do what we can to
(24:42):
you know, I'm screaming at Chuck Schumer on the phone
literally to trying to get them to um change these laws.
Um and uh yeah, I mean, and America has a
long way to go, and it's not something I fully understand. Me.
I moved to the States when I was seventeen, you know,
um and and I'm from probably one of the most
like weed friendly cities in the world, and it was
(25:06):
a huge like learning curve for me to understand truly,
like how all the weed laws that we know them
are based on racism and how like and and that's it.
And then the only reason it's illegal is racist, the
only reason that and and that is not something that
I fully understood until I had lived in America for
(25:27):
a long time. And even that trickled down to Canada.
And that is why it's illegal in Canada as well. Um,
And I think most Canadians don't understand that at all,
you know, Um And I think most people don't understand
that at all. Like I don't think the average person,
as I, you know, interact with them, understands that like
all the laws regarding weed are based in racism and
(25:49):
and and and and that is something that is like
it just needs to be reconciled, and something that I'm
more than happy to speak about and directly support causes
that are trying to about that. But um no, it's
it's terrible, you know. And and the more you live
in America where I live in America, some one from
another country, the more you just see like, oh, like
everything is based in racism, Like it's all it's it's
(26:10):
not just weed, it's it's it's a lot, you know,
it can be really overwhelming. And I agree, I don't
think a lot of people understand just how grounded and
racism and sort of protecting white supremacy that all of
this anti marijuana legislation is and the ways in which
they really try to restrict people in states where it's
(26:32):
legal from doing business, uh, you know, with the all
cash thing and you can't put your money in a bank,
and um, you know, how do you reconcile just some
of the realities of the history of weed and the
progressive states in the US where it's legal, and as
a white man, as someone with some privilege, you get
(26:53):
to enjoy this kind of entrepreneurship. But so much of
the country is still just so asked backwards. Is that
something that you struggle with at all? Um, Yeah, I
mean it's something that we have woven into the fabric
of what we are doing, and something that we would
never have presumed to, you know, venture into this field
(27:17):
without acknowledging it. I do think that I can help
contribute positively to the world of weed and the weed
market and landscape. I think that it's a big, scary
world for a lot of people. I think that people
could use guidance. I think there are products that just
make the lives and of people who smoke weed easier.
(27:39):
And I think that all that does have an effect
on destigmatizing weed and um and making it overall. It
does seem ridiculous that that it is um illegal at
all and used to imprison people at all. Um. There's obviously,
like inherently conflict at play. I also have a TV
show on Amazon. I feel a lot of conflict about that,
(28:00):
you know, Like, I think we can get into that. Yeah,
I mean, you know, I think about that a lot.
As a writer, I maybe half of my income might
come from Amazon, and I struggle. I struggle with that
because there are oftentimes calls to take your books off
of Amazon, or not to promote anything via Amazon. You know,
(28:20):
I've written short stories for them, I have a soulda
TV show to them. And it's hard. It is hard,
and you know, I always think, okay, so this is
where I sort of run up against my own inconsistencies
and that sort of Okay, this might be my weakness.
I don't know that I can walk away from this opportunity.
I just don't and I struggle with that quite a lot.
(28:41):
It's hard. But then I think, like my books are
through HarperCollins, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Like there's
just very few ways to be creative without being connected
to evil at a certain level. It's very true. I mean,
it's and it is just it is cash, and it
is take a step back, and I think, like, yes,
I have some to live in a capitalist country and
(29:02):
to participate in that system, and is it's something that
I you know, I'm from a much more socialist country
and and I left it to come here and make
more money and and have a bigger cultural impact with
my work as well, you know, but for sure, I mean,
(29:22):
I think I know a lot of creative people who
that is a source of a lot of conflict in
their lives. Yeah, it is a real dilemma. And I
don't have any magical answers at all other than yes,
capitalism and just trying to do my best that I
have a slightly, well not slightly. I have a much
(29:42):
more lighthearted question. I know. You guys sell a couple
of varieties of house plant, diablo, wind, pancake ice. What
goes into coming up with names for different strains of weed?
It's somewhat. We use weather Systems. That is of our
naming convinced is weather Systems. And it's all based on
Pineapple Express, a movie we made a long time ago,
(30:04):
which is thought so yeah, because and we got that
name because we're from the Pacific Northwest and we would
always hear about the Pineapple Express was coming in and
we were always like, man, that's just a cool name.
And then and then as we started daming others strains,
we I mean, I think I remember just like googling,
(30:25):
like weather system names, and they were like, oh, there's
a lot of really cool names on here, and it
kind of follows our own little philosophy. But the truth
is that it is completely made up. A lot of
it's some of it is combinations of of the strains
in some way, but those are made up as well. Um.
We we used to have a scene in Pineapple Spress
that was cut out where someone like that where the
main dealer guy was like naming the strains and it
(30:46):
was just him, just like Da Vinci's brush, purple people eader.
You know, you know, it's just it's completely it's whenever
you think it's like that joke of the Wire where
they're always selling like the it's like it always it
has a new name aim every season. The pandemic. Yeah. Now,
you mentioned that you came here for a few reasons,
(31:07):
but to have a greater cultural impact. Do you feel
thus far in your career that you've had the cultural
impact you would like to? I think we've had. I mean,
I think I look at um the fact that a
lot of the movies we've made have are still around
and there's still movies that people talk about, and when
people talk about their favorite comedies. I'm amazed still at
(31:28):
how often movies I've contributed to in some way, either
very directly or someone indirectly, but still I'm a part
of them. Um are like on that list of like
the kind of movies that defined comedy for a certain
you know, age group. And and also I mean eighteen
year old to like super Bad is one of their
(31:50):
favorite movies still, which um is is it? It's shocking
to me, but um I think, like I can't deny
now in a way that is nice that like a
lot out of the stuff we've done has to the
test of time, and it's kind of woven its way
into cinematic culture or North American culture. I don't even
know how you would. I think it's so global at
this point that it's hard to it's hard to define it,
(32:12):
I think, but it's amazing. Often I'll go on Twitter
and mclovin is trending for some reason. I see that
all the time. I know, on the day of his
birthday on his face, mclovin on some radio shows Blake
grow Friends wearing mclovin shoes like and it's just it's
one those six drove. It's like it's still like this
(32:33):
is a joke we wrote when we were I think
fifteen years old, and like it's I'm I'm forty and
a couple of months and it's like it's still and
to what I'm saying about getting better, Like I can't
say I've come up with a bunch funnier joke in
the last well, I mean it is if that's your
peak at fifteen, it's a good peeks because it still works.
(32:58):
I mean every time super Bad on TV and and
I catch it, I just think this is some funny ship.
And so I think that has to feel good to
know like that the work has that kind of longevity
because it's been a minute since super Bad came out
and people are still you know, it's still relevant. No,
it's totally nice. It was like the w g A
just put it on the list of like the hundred
best screenplays of the twenty one century or something like that,
(33:19):
and it was like, I was, I think it's literally
the only one on the list that was not nominated
for many awards. It was actually dominated for zero awards.
But it's but that's what I'm also was saying about movies,
like it was a joke I made a while ago,
but I kind of like it's like we should be
giving Oscar, like the Oscar should be on like a
(33:40):
five year lag like, because I actually think that is
around as much time as it takes to actually understand
if a movie is good or not and it has
done what it's meant to do or not. Because I
think there's some movies where, like the year they come out,
it seems like a cultural station and then you look
(34:01):
back even like two years later, and you're like that
one best picture, like it's no one even thinks about
that movie. And then we look at some movie that
like got no awards or no one was really talking
about it in that way at the time, and it's
like everyone loves it, and every time it's on TV,
everyone watches its trending on Twitter all the time because
people are like sharing scenes that they you know, and
(34:22):
and and that takes years to really under to define
in a lot of ways, but people really like to
do this stuff fast, I guess I think so. I mean,
I think people have short memories, you know, because one
of my favorite movies is a movie I saw probably
years ago, which was Empire Records, which I loved so
much over the last weekend. It's so good, and in
(34:46):
my phone I put it on an annual reminder that
like April. I think it's April eighth. April eighth is
Rex Manning Day. And I was going through my calendar
this morning for some things I'm doing in April, and
I was like, oh my god, Rex Manny Day is
coming up. And that movie was a failure and terrible reviews,
like it was reviewed, like actually went back was reading
(35:08):
the old reviews for it and just being like, you
didn't get it. You don't know what you had, Like
it's it holds up so well. It's a really interesting
it feels so real. The tone was really good. It's funny,
it's very there's like it's like a very upfront look
at like suicide in a lot of way, he's impression
(35:29):
and like there's a lot of incredibly heavy themes that
are dealt with very like matter of factly. It's a
great movie and like yeah, and then it was there
was also still that like subplot about like corporate culture
taking over like the good indies, which is still a
thing like that. They were kind of a head at
the time. Hated Yeah. Now last year I read your
(35:53):
memoir Yearbook, And at first I was a little hesitant
to read it because I have often been disappointed in
books for funny people. But I loved it. It was
very funny, thank you, and very warm, And so I
was wondering if you enjoyed the experience of writing a memoir.
I did memorist essays. Yeah, I mean I don't. I
(36:15):
really enjoyed it. Um, it was hard once I have
the stories. The hardest part was like, is this a
good enough thing to write about? Basically? And I think like,
and honestly like, your book was very inspirational to me,
that feminist and I had read some things you had
read about essay writing, and it did actually help me
fraighten it because I actually think you kind of freed
(36:36):
me in some ways because I've heard you talk about
how like they don't have to be these like perfect things,
you know what I mean, Like it doesn't have to
be like oh, and then like the last line wraps
it all up, you know, which was very freeing and actually,
like I think made me realize that some things that
I had didn't know how to contextualize perfectly would maybe
still be good stories if I just kind of didn't
(36:57):
pretend that there was some bow I was trying to
put Youally, I find that and I tell my students
this all the time. You only have to give the
audience of what they might want. You don't have to
resolve everything for them. And I also I'm a firm
believer in trusting your reader. People can put fill the
they can fill in the blanks or not, but like,
let the reader do a little work, they're going to
(37:18):
get there. Yeah it was. I did really enjoy it,
and I wasn't sure I was. I was honestly very
worried about how um More than most things I do,
I was worried about how it would be received. And
then one of the nice things I realized is that
like books in general, are just so much less scrutinized
(37:39):
than movies. Welcome to the great sorrowful truth about writing,
but which was kind of a lovely surprise. Yeah, you know,
if you're only a writer, like a book writer, then
the amount of scrutiny you get can be incredibly overwhelming.
But going from like film where millions and millions of
(38:01):
people watch movies, website dedicated to categorizing your films, like yeah,
it was it was honestly a pleasant surprise, and I
mostly wanted it to be funny, like I actually like
wanted to just like make people laugh. And I felt
(38:21):
like I could maybe get it to a place like
in our movies where it kind of just gets rolling
and like you don't even know like when it happened.
You just kind of look back and you're like, oh,
I'm like laughing really hard and have been for a
few minutes because I've been like swept up in like
the stakes of the story and what's happening and how
ridiculous it is. And that was like really what I wanted.
(38:42):
And that's been like one of the nicest things to
see as feedback, just as random people are reading it,
and you know, I'm seeing messages that like it's a
lot of like I'm like alone by the pool, laughing
like an idiot as people look at me. And that's
and that's like truly the only and and and that
was when I sat down, I was like, what can
I add to this landscape. It's like, I'm not going
(39:03):
to write the smartest book. I have not read the
most interesting life or going to lead the most interesting
life out there. But I feel like people love super
Bad and it's very personal and and and it's and
I think because they can tell it's personal and this
all those steaks ascribed to like when those things happened
to you as a young person and as you get older.
(39:24):
And that was really like what I thought I could
try to do was like take that energy and and
and expanded into a book, which yeah, I I really enjoyed.
I don't think I have any more good stories. Though.
One of the things that struck me the most in
the book was the way in which you have been
kind of doing the same thing for a really long time,
(39:47):
and you have surrounded yourself with the same people for
a really long time. And and not a lot of
people can say that that their friends at fifteen are
their friends as they are nearing forty. Don't have you
been able to have that kind of longevity in some
of your most intimate relationships. Um, I've been a part
(40:10):
of a writing team since I was like thirteen years old,
and those are very like formative years and I truly
and me and my partner talked about this a lot,
like I think our brains formed around the idea of
like partnership and collaboration and how to create what could
(40:30):
be a very long lasting and productive relationship with people.
We've been very geared to it for so long because
even at a very young age, we were like, I
think we could do this forever. Like I think, I
think if we do this right, all this fun we're
having we're just kind of hanging out and we're smoking
weed and making each other laugh and like, but we're
(40:52):
right and working hard and really with a shared goal,
like I think, if we do this right, we can
keep doing it. And and one of the things about
it has been like communication and really like navigating the
the intricacies of these types of relationships and acknowledging that
it's a relationship that needs work like any other relationship,
(41:13):
you know. Um, And what's funny is like those are
conversations that are in some ways very like mature conversations
that like me and Evan and Kyle and aarial or
to other people who work with and I went, I
grew up with them as well, And um, they're kind
of conversations we've been having since, like since we were
teenagers about like Okay, I don't like this when you work,
I need this, I I I shut down when when
(41:34):
you say this to me, you know, I take it personally.
When you do this, you might not be meaning that,
but I it hurts my process because I feel like
you're really like belittling where I'm coming from. Creatively, things
like that are like our conversations we've been having for
for twenty five years now. And and I've seen a
(41:55):
lot of teams break up and a lot and and
our personalities are very compatible. And if Evan even remotely
was jealous of like the attention that I get in
relation to him, it would not function. But he just isn't.
And if anything, he is thrilled that he doesn't have
(42:17):
to deal with that. And that is like we've and
we talk about that a lot in that, like we
have worked very hard, but we are fortunate in that,
Like he does have this personality thing where he just
is not jealous of the fact that I organically am
absorbing a lot of the attention that surrounds our projects.
(42:37):
And I've seen other teams where one of the people
is like a performer and the other one isn't, and
it becomes very disruptive sometimes and and and the the
jealousy really like destroys the relationship and and he's just
nor should he be. But he has never been jealous
of the fact that I'm like the famous one and
(42:59):
he isn't you know. Um, and that's been like a
real like like that. That's been one of the most
beneficial things I think. Yeah, that's a that's a blessing
because indeed, partnerships can go awry when one person gets
more attention, at least on one level. Yeah, I really
appreciate you coming on my podcast. I have just one
last question, which is just the typical last question. What
(43:22):
do you have coming up on the horizon creatively? Oh wow,
that's a guy I'm in this show Pam and Tommy,
which is on Hulu. I just drove by the billboard. Yeah,
so yeah, that's on Hulu February twond Um. I played
the guy who stole pamla Anderson and Tommy Lee's sex tape. Um,
who was a disgruntled carpenter and uh, it's a don't
(43:46):
piss off your carpenter is one of the morals of
the lessons to be learned, Lessons to be learned and uh.
The season three of The Boys is coming out um
this summer, and we have an animated anthology show based
on The Boy that comes out um before then in March,
I believe. So yeah, a lot of a lot of
Seth Rogan related content coming your way. Well, I look
(44:09):
forward to it and also following your continued adventures and pottery.
Please do. I love it and it's on It's on
my fireplace mantle. Everyone asks I do name drop it.
I do. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not above it.
Thank you so much, Seth. This has been a really
discreat Thank you. I appreciate it. So that's our conversation
(44:38):
with Seth Rogan, and of course Matt's barking in the
background because he's going through a little barkie phase. You
can keep up with me and the podcast on social
media on Twitter at our g a y and Instagram
at Roxanne Gay seventy four. Our email addresses Roxanne Gay
Agenda at gmail dot com if you want to share
(44:58):
your thoughts on what you think in about the show
from Luminary. The Roxanne Gay Podcast is produced by Curtis
Fox Are in turn as you Sanya Moreno. Production support
provided by Caitlin Adams. I'm Roxanne Gay, your favorite bad feminist.
Thank you for listening. Yep, yep, yep. I mean, anytime
(45:22):
someone even thinks about looking at this house, markt Max
has something to say about it. It's truly some
At some point you make a choice about who you
are what you want. My wife, Debbie, and I recently
started watching Euphoria on HBO. It's a show I had
kind of avoided because I had seen part of the
pilot when it originally aired. For whatever reason, it just
(00:24):
wasn't for me. I mean, high school stuck. The first
time around, I had no desire to go back. Man
hate high School. But since the show debuted, people have
continued talking about it, and so I wanted to understand
and be part of the conversation, and I decided to
give it another chance, which worked out really well because
(00:44):
this time around, I am loving the show. First of all, Ashtray,
give me a show about him and him alone. I
need nothing else. So we're five or six episodes into
the first season, and I have to say I am
so stressed out for every single young woman on this show.
In every episode between the predatory men and they're absolutely
(01:08):
terrible decision making, a little bit of addiction and some
other regular adolescent issues. They have me watching half of
each episode with my fingers over my eyes and the
other half chatting, oh my god, baby, what are you doing?
From luminary? This is the Roxanne Gay Agenda the Bad
(01:29):
Feminist podcast of Your Dreams. I am Roxanne Gay, your
favorite bad feminist, and today I want to talk about edibles.
The lowest point of my first experience with edibles was
probably when I tied myself to my bed with a
sheet because I worried that I was going to fall
off the bed and then off the end of the world.
(01:51):
I don't have a lot of experience with drugs. I
was raised to be a good girl, and old habits
die hard. I went to boarding school and then fancy college,
so I always had acts us to good drugs. But
I was terrified that the first time I tried drugs,
I would die, and then my parents would find out
I had done drugs, and my ghosts would have to
live with that shame for all of eternity. And then
I moved to California, where things are a lot more mellow.
(02:14):
One night, I had dinner with a friend and her
friend who owned several dispensaries, and this friend gave me
an edible and I knew that several months later marijuana
would be legal, so law abiding citizen ok a nerd
that I am. I decided to wait because I didn't
want to break the law. I recognize how lame that sounds,
I really really do. So the following January, marijuana was
(02:35):
finally legal, and this was like four years ago. Dispensaries
that looked like slick apple stores were all bright light
and wide spaces, concrete floors, lots of natural wood. They
were all open, and the staff in these beautiful places
would ask you like, what kind of high are you
looking for? Man? And they would walk you carefully through
the different kinds of weed and CBD products available. It
(02:57):
was delightful. And then they would put your per just
is and a cute little shopping bag and you could
simply just go on your way. Now, if you didn't
want to go to a store for whatever reason, you
can just order the wheat on the internet and someone
will just bring it to your front door. And of course,
all of this is happening while thousands of black men
who were incarcerated for marijuana possession or dealing remain incarcerated.
(03:21):
It's kind of a bitter, jagged pill to swallow to
see who benefits from certain kinds of legislation and who
gets left behind. But I digressed. In January, I had
surgery and one night, when the pain pills had run out,
I was alone in my apartment and board and still
tender at the incisions and feeling sorry for myself. And
so I found those edibles that the friend of a
(03:42):
friend had given me, and I carefully read the instructions,
and it said that the appropriate dose was three small
squares of chocolate. I consulted the Internet, and the Internet
seemed to agree, and so I took all three squares
of chocolate. And I was really ready for a nice, mellow,
long sleep that I could sink into. And the squares
tasted like chocolate infused with weed, which is to say
they tasted disgusting. I felt nothing. I continued watching TV.
(04:07):
After forty five minutes, I had decided it had been
way too long since I received the edibles and they
had lost their potency. You should also know I hadn't
eaten solid food in more than three weeks, so my
tolerance was at an all time low. I was so very,
very wrong. An hour later, the room started spinning wildly,
(04:27):
and I very much wanted it to stop. So I
took a deep breath and I sat up. I held
on to the edge of my couch took a sip
of water. Then I decided that it was probably best
for me to be in bed, so I stood slowly
and walked even more slowly to my bedroom. I lay
down and I closed my eyes. That was one of
(04:49):
many mistakes, because once I was horizontal, my heart started pounding.
I was convinced I was having a heart attack, and
I just knew my mother was going to get this
terrible phone call informing her that her daughter had died
of drugs. What you need to know about my mom
is that she has this really ridiculous thing about marijuana.
She has never tasted a drop of alcohol, she has
(05:10):
never smoked up, but she reads about alcohol and drugs
extensively and believes they are unholy substances that are going
to bring about any person's downfall. She has a real
problem with weed in particular, and it's so hilarious and
almost adorable if it wasn't so annoying. She will, in
the random conversations just that we're having, will hold forth
(05:30):
at length about marijuana as a dangerous gateway drug, as
the root of so many great societal problems. And I'm like, Mom,
nobody smoking weed is causing any problems I assure you,
if she smells marijuana anywhere, she will loudly declare that
she smells marijuana. She is suspicious of anyone who looks
like they partake, and her hatred for marijuana makes me
(05:52):
wish I enjoyed it more, just to be contrary. Anytime
she starts arguing against it, I find myself passionately to
ending it, like it's my job. The desire to rebel,
I suppose, never dies. So there I was, and the
bed was spinning in one direction and the room was
spinning in the other. I was desperately thirsty, and on
(06:13):
my nightstand there was a bottle of water, and I
had about three SIPs left, and so I knew I
was going to have to ration those SIPs because I
had no idea when it was going to be safe
to leave my bed. The spinning got worse, and I
worried that I was going to fall off, So I
did the only thing that made sense at the time.
I tied myself to the bed with my flat sheets
so I would be safe and secure. And I tied
myself really tightly because I was so scared. And then
(06:34):
I took a little, tiny, tiny slip of water and
I wondered what would happen when I needed to use
the bathroom. I sat up and swung my feet off
the bed, pressing my toes into the carpet. I stood,
and this was the second mistake. I was still, but
the room was not. In addition to the spinning, the
floor was undulating in waves. I looked at the bathroom,
(06:54):
which was only four steps away, and I wondered if
there was enough length in the sheet to keep me
secure while I made my way to the toilet. Unfortunately
there was not. I only made it as far as
a sink, and I knew that I could not risk
releasing myself. So I got back in bed with a
full bladder, and I wondered if I should phone a friend.
But I was mortified by just how poorly I was
(07:14):
handling what I thought was a really small dosage of edibles.
So my heart was pounding and I was dying. I
just knew I was dying. I wanted to write notes
to everyone I loved, but it was really hard to
make my fingers work, so I just gave up on that.
I hoped that they knew I loved them, and I
called one and I said calmly. I thought that I
(07:35):
was dying of a heart attack and could they please
come get me so I could die in a hospital
instead of my apartment, where it could be days before
my body was discovered. The dispatcher asked me a few questions,
and I said I was home alone and that my
front door was locked. There We're going to just have
to bust it down. He asked me if I could
find my wallet and open the door, and I said
I couldn't because I was tied to my bed. And
(07:56):
I said they were going to have to bring a
sledgehammer because it was a really strong door. And then
I said, it's only my third time ever using marijuana products,
and I waited until it was legal because that information
felt so important at the time. The dispatcher assured me
that the e m t s are going to be
there soon, and that's when time refracted. Hours later, I
was still dying and no one had come to save me.
(08:19):
So I called nine one one again to let them
know I was still dying, and they said, ma'am, it
has been two minutes since you last called. They also
said that the e m T s were actually at
my front door already, but I needed to let them in.
I reminded them that I was tied to the bed,
and the E M T said, well, could you please
try to free yourself, which I guess I did. I
(08:40):
have no idea, how so then I took about five
hours holding onto the wall like a spy in a
spy movie, and I eventually made it to the front door,
maybe another five hours later. I opened the door and
there were a bunch of incredibly hot firemen, because it
was Los Angeles, where pretty much everyone is incredibly active,
(09:00):
and I explained that I had waited until marijuana was legal,
and they just seemed genuinely sad that my first edible
experience was so terrible, and it was just so kind
of them. I also explained I was, you know, recovering
from surgery, and from then on I was in and
out of consciousness. And then I was in an ambulance
in boxers and a T shirt and flip flops and stitches,
(09:23):
and then I was in a very dirty, grim downtown hospital,
and then the nurses were laughing at me good naturedly
for having such a bad trip. And then I was
in a hospital room with a woman who was drugs
seeking and down on her luck and dealing with kidney
issues and husband issues, and so long story short, I
spent two nights in the hospital and I was still
high when I left. I've been thinking about edibles because
(09:50):
my guest today is the one and only Seth Rowing.
As many people know, Seth's experiences with weed are extensive
and much more fortunate than my own, my little Bremen.
Seth first came to public attention in with a television
show Freaks and Geeks. He was still a teenager playing
(10:10):
a teenager, and he was funny as hell. He wasn't
just a pretty face. Though. With his friend and longtime
collaborator Evan Goldberg, he started writing the movie super Bad,
also about high school, and by the time he made
that movie, he was a little too old to play
the lead, so he played an inappropriate cop. Was the
African He was like, he He's Jewish, so we have
(10:32):
an African jew wearing a hoodie tonight. Over the years,
Seth Rogan has been incredibly busy, not just acting but
writing and producing. To say the least, he is prolific
when he is also an increasingly accomplished potter and marijuana connoisseur.
In two thousand nineteen, in Canada, he co founded house Plant,
(10:52):
a business that combines those two passions, weed and beautifully
made accessories that help people to smoke it, and in
one house Plants started doing business here in the United States.
He talks about all of this and more and his
hilarious and often moving memoir Yearbook, which also came out
in Seth Rogan, thank you so much for joining the
(11:13):
Roxane Gay Agenda. Thank you so much for having me.
That story is unbelievable. It was. It was wild. It
was just so so wild, and I couldn't believe it
was happening to me, and that I was so ridiculous
as to call the the nine one one and then
the whole ship bang. But I was just like, I
don't want to do. You're not the first person that
(11:35):
I've encountered who has called nine one one from eating
wheat edibles, And yeah, I was just so paramount. It
was so bad. And I've, as you've said, I've done
a lot of drugs throughout my life. The only times
I have felt like I truly wish like I could
make an end was from eating wheat food. Like it
(11:57):
it is. It is a different thing it really is.
I will take as smoking high any day, but in
edible I'm done with edibles, and edibles are done with me.
That some really bad. My dad wants to accidentally ate
a very powerful weed brownie that I had left in
my refrigerator, and uh, and he thought he was dying
and and it was a similar thing. And my mother called,
(12:18):
like really in a in a state. It was like,
there's something seriously wrong with your father. And then I
was like, did he eat a brownie from my fridge?
And they were like yeah, I like that that's what happened,
that he's not dying. You don't know what's dangerous until
you try. Let you tied to the bed. That's my motto.
So last year, I think, or maybe the year before,
you sent me a beautiful piece of pottery. It's a
(12:41):
small vase. It's green and yellow and it's just really
really lovely. And of course, because this is a podcast,
I can't show everyone, but I have been loving watching
your pottery journey and everyone I know, well not everyone,
but two of my friends have already started taking pottery lessons.
I'm ready to get a wheel and get going. How
(13:02):
on earth did you get in the pattern. Um, my
wonderful wife Laura actually is is how I got into pottery.
She um, I've had a lot of hobbies over there.
I guess I've always like like and I always wanted
to like make art in like some sort of tangible
art in some way. And I'm just like a bad
painter and a bad drawer, Like I just like it
(13:23):
didn't it doesn't come out of my hand, what's in
my head? And um and yeah, and then finally, after
years of imploring me to try it, we like went
and took a pottery class and um in West Hollywood,
and and I just loved it and and very quickly
we got our own wheels. And I just found myself
like really kind of taking to it and really enjoying
(13:44):
it and and I yeah, and I was getting better
at I found like that was really nice that there
was like a market improvement, which I think is not
something I think like as as a writer and you know, filmmaker,
like I can't I can't definitively tell you I'm getting better.
Would like to. I think some things are getting better,
but like I don't, I can't always say, like I
(14:04):
don't always assume the next thing I make will be
the best thing I've made, you know what I mean?
But I think with a craft like pottery, what was
nice is like you you generally ascend, like I think,
because there's like a craft a craft like level to it,
rather than it being purely creative. There's like an approvement
you see in yourself that I that I find to
(14:26):
be very gratifying and and and and also very like, Uh,
it is orienting I think in a in a in
a world that I find uh disorienting at times. The
world is disorienting in so many ways. What does throwing
clay offer that writing and performing and producing doesn't? Like?
(14:47):
What is the thing that's unique about pottery? Well, a
few it's very singular, Like I think, like I love
how collaborative filmmaking is, but it is by nature like
very collaborative, and are working with a lot of people
all the time to like bring your vision to life.
And there's something that's kind of nice about just sitting
(15:08):
there yourself and doing this thing you know, um, And
the idea of creating something very tangible is very nice.
Um and and actually like something I can give to
people like um and then they will have it, Like
I think, um, like a movie or you know, things
like that, like there by nature something everyone has. And
it's interesting to be able to give people things that
(15:30):
only they have, you know. Um. And it's different in
a lot of ways. But I actually think I've started
to learn things from it that I can apply to
my other jobs in that like I do approach it
with like no, because I don't rely on it for
any like financial income or you know. And and I
I never like truly aspire to be like a Caramesis
(15:53):
really you know what I mean? But so I want
to get great at it and better at it. But
I have no like rules I'm following, and I have
no like ructure I'm following. And I think there has
been something about that that I found really freeing, um,
and something that I now look at things I'm writing
or getting ready to produce and I'm like, why, like
why are we being rigid with this when when when
(16:15):
it doesn't have to be rigid, we can kind of
do whatever we want, you know. Um. Yeah, that's interesting
that it's like giving you that permission to maybe be
less rigid with things that kind of demand a certain
amount of discipline. And and I like that idea of
having at least one artistic outlet where nothing's really at
stake other than your own pleasure. Because some people on
(16:36):
Instagram saying they don't like my face. Yeah, it's really not.
It is low stakes. There's one thing that A Stramas
has said to me that I that that I that
I now apply to everything. And I think it's like
you've probably noticed, as someone who collects um ceramics, as
I know you do, is like I think a lot
of people pick up a ceramic thing and they look
at the bottom of it. It's kind of where you
learn a lot about the person who made it. Weirdly,
(16:59):
it's where they'll often put their mark. You kind of
see how refined the thing is. Is it like very
well refined? Is there a perfect little foot? Is it
kind of a scrappy thing? Did they think like, it's
the bottom, I don't have to make it perfect looking,
or did they think like, no, it's the bottom, but
I will make it look I want it to be
representative of the piece as a whole. And I think
that that it's also like a Q I've taken where
(17:21):
like even the bottom, like the thing you're not even
supposed to be looking at is in many ways like
the most indicative of what you have made, and I
think like creatively, it's something I now can't stop thinking of.
Is like, even though it's the bottom, it doesn't mean
it's not an opportunity to show it's what whether you
(17:42):
like it or not, it will show people what your
sensibility is. Do you know what your sensibility is? I
think it's try I I think it is. I like
that there's some technical refinement to it. But I also
try to take big creative swings and and do things
that I don't think other people are doing, which I
(18:04):
do think applies to a lot of things I do.
And sometimes it's to the detriment of the finished product.
Sometimes it's not. Yeah not not all experiments are gonna
work out. So how do you teach yourself newer things now?
Are you still taking classes or are you just experimenting
in your studio both. I've taken workshop, I've taken workshops
(18:25):
from people. I've had people come and teach me things.
I took a glaze making online workshop with my wife Lauren,
and that's also been a very interesting thing. Is like
people come over a lot of our friends, like um
will come over and we have a we have a
little studio in our garage, and so we can kind
of show people how to do when we give them
a little lessons. And like, it's really interesting to see
(18:47):
that a lot of adults have kind of like tune
themselves out to like learning new things or don't like
being put in the position of like knowing nothing and
then trying a thing, because I think by the time
you're like, you know, when you're mid thirties, you're kind
of like I've done with that, Like I know what
I could do, what I can't do, and if I
don't feel like I could do it, I'm probably not
(19:08):
gonna try it, you know what I mean. But and
so it's really interesting to see how some people and
and I and I now look back and think like, oh,
it's nice that I try to learn a new thing.
When we were almost forty, we were like, oh, that's
like really dedicate to learning a new craft and really
try to take it, like not seriously, but like really
(19:29):
try to get good at it, you know. Um, And yeah,
it's interesting to see that, like some adults are just
very turned off by even like the concept of of
being taught something new. At this age. Yeah, you know,
I think a lot of times it's that I think
a lot of us remember what it felt like to
have to know very little, and unfortunately I still know
I know very little, and I think that idea of
(19:51):
having to surrender expertise can be very overwhelming, Like what
do you mean I have to like start at the
beginning again, it's you know, during the pandemic, I think
a lot of us took up different creative hobbies and
so I needed something that there was absolutely nothing at
stake for. And so I've been teaching myself how to
decorate caps. Oh my god, it's so amazing. It's just
(20:14):
so relaxing, and it's so fun, and there's all kinds
of little tools like and it's a really intense world,
like YouTube is um truly the whole world unto itself.
It's been humbling because my cakes are fucking ugly, but
they like pottery. I can definitely see a trajectory of improvement,
(20:35):
and I mean, you know, I'm going to get there
because it's not my full time thing. It never will be,
and so I don't need to rush it. But it's yeah,
it's humbling. Wheel like I do, I do use a
banding wheel. And you know, I love to put my
little creations on Instagram and there's always fucking Fred twenty
six like that's ugly, and I'm like, Fred, do you
(20:56):
have a mirror? Come on, don't worry about much of us.
Don't worry And that talks about like a mug she
posted like two years ago that was like great, and
there was one comment that was like that handle though,
and she was just like every time she's just like
that motherfucker that handle though. You make a handle. It's
always interesting. Everyone's an expert. Speaking of expertise, like when
(21:20):
it comes to commenting on something someone else has done,
it's I wouldn't you know. Someone was like, oh, you know,
you're piping, and I just think, do you know how
hard it is to like hold a piping bags steady
and keep the frosting firm enough to like make a flower.
It's not as easy as it looks, exactly very hard.
Try pulling a handle. I well, I've been watching Uh
(21:45):
I'm actually in the middle of the second season of
Blown Away. I don't know if Oh my god, it's
so addictive. I had no idea how elaborate like glassblowing
and making ceramics. Was it's a whole thing and it's
really impressive and I love how they make it seem
like everything is at stake to the next And the
(22:11):
English show. Yeah, there's this English show about pottery and
it's a bunch of ceramicists and you know, we have
to make sixteen plates and they have to all be
exactly the same. And I just get sue deeply deeply invested.
Hold on one second, Sorry, my dog just came in. Um. Now,
I one of the things I know you recently started,
(22:32):
not recently, but it came to the United States last year,
house plant. And I've noticed that there are some pottery pieces,
the Robert Lugo um which I bought and love and
he's incredible. He actually made me a vase with my
face on it and my book cover and like this
is the best? Is the best? Um? What is it
(22:54):
that opening house Plant has done for you? I think
a lot of people were not necessary at least surprised,
because you are such a great advocate for weed. But
like the records, the advocacy, you know, what, what are
you really trying to accomplish with house Plant? A few
things I think the most important things are we want
(23:16):
to be a great company. We want to I we
I often say we want to be the company that
we deserves. And I think, UM, I think we need
is truly like one of the great products there is.
And I think in a world where like our headphones
are kind of treated very nicely, and things that are
not nearly as nice or as good products or things
(23:39):
that are as additive to like my personal day to
day UM journey are are treated like UM respectfully and
and are given like they're do. That's that's kind of um.
You know that that that to me is very important
and culturally and legally, as you were saying, like weed
has a long way to go, and we want, you know,
(24:01):
to exist in a world where you know, there isn't
this like terrible you know, like underlying side to all
of the switches that it's still federally illegal in America.
There's tons of people in jail for it. Um. It
is often used as a way to get a first
offense on people and then to put them in the
(24:21):
system and then to keep you know, keep them there
for their entire lives. Potentially It's terrible. So you know,
that's something that is also incredibly important, is bringing as
much focus to that and advocacy to that and just
literally supporting these organizations like Last Prisoner Project and um,
you know, trying to directly do what we can to
(24:42):
you know, I'm screaming at Chuck Schumer on the phone
literally to trying to get them to um change these laws.
Um and uh yeah, I mean, and America has a
long way to go, and it's not something I fully understand. Me.
I moved to the States when I was seventeen, you know,
um and and I'm from probably one of the most
like weed friendly cities in the world, and it was
(25:06):
a huge like learning curve for me to understand truly,
like how all the weed laws that we know them
are based on racism and how like and and that's it.
And then the only reason it's illegal is racist, the
only reason that and and that is not something that
I fully understood until I had lived in America for
(25:27):
a long time. And even that trickled down to Canada.
And that is why it's illegal in Canada as well. Um,
And I think most Canadians don't understand that at all,
you know, Um And I think most people don't understand
that at all. Like I don't think the average person,
as I, you know, interact with them, understands that like
all the laws regarding weed are based in racism and
(25:49):
and and and and that is something that is like
it just needs to be reconciled, and something that I'm
more than happy to speak about and directly support causes
that are trying to about that. But um no, it's
it's terrible, you know. And and the more you live
in America where I live in America, some one from
another country, the more you just see like, oh, like
everything is based in racism, Like it's all it's it's
(26:10):
not just weed, it's it's it's a lot, you know,
it can be really overwhelming. And I agree, I don't
think a lot of people understand just how grounded and
racism and sort of protecting white supremacy that all of
this anti marijuana legislation is and the ways in which
they really try to restrict people in states where it's
(26:32):
legal from doing business, uh, you know, with the all
cash thing and you can't put your money in a bank,
and um, you know, how do you reconcile just some
of the realities of the history of weed and the
progressive states in the US where it's legal, and as
a white man, as someone with some privilege, you get
(26:53):
to enjoy this kind of entrepreneurship. But so much of
the country is still just so asked backwards. Is that
something that you struggle with at all? Um, Yeah, I
mean it's something that we have woven into the fabric
of what we are doing, and something that we would
never have presumed to, you know, venture into this field
(27:17):
without acknowledging it. I do think that I can help
contribute positively to the world of weed and the weed
market and landscape. I think that it's a big, scary
world for a lot of people. I think that people
could use guidance. I think there are products that just
make the lives and of people who smoke weed easier.
(27:39):
And I think that all that does have an effect
on destigmatizing weed and um and making it overall. It
does seem ridiculous that that it is um illegal at
all and used to imprison people at all. Um. There's obviously,
like inherently conflict at play. I also have a TV
show on Amazon. I feel a lot of conflict about that,
(28:00):
you know, Like, I think we can get into that. Yeah,
I mean, you know, I think about that a lot.
As a writer, I maybe half of my income might
come from Amazon, and I struggle. I struggle with that
because there are oftentimes calls to take your books off
of Amazon, or not to promote anything via Amazon. You know,
(28:20):
I've written short stories for them, I have a soulda
TV show to them. And it's hard. It is hard,
and you know, I always think, okay, so this is
where I sort of run up against my own inconsistencies
and that sort of Okay, this might be my weakness.
I don't know that I can walk away from this opportunity.
I just don't and I struggle with that quite a lot.
(28:41):
It's hard. But then I think, like my books are
through HarperCollins, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Like there's
just very few ways to be creative without being connected
to evil at a certain level. It's very true. I mean,
it's and it is just it is cash, and it
is take a step back, and I think, like, yes,
I have some to live in a capitalist country and
(29:02):
to participate in that system, and is it's something that
I you know, I'm from a much more socialist country
and and I left it to come here and make
more money and and have a bigger cultural impact with
my work as well, you know, but for sure, I mean,
(29:22):
I think I know a lot of creative people who
that is a source of a lot of conflict in
their lives. Yeah, it is a real dilemma. And I
don't have any magical answers at all other than yes,
capitalism and just trying to do my best that I
have a slightly, well not slightly. I have a much
(29:42):
more lighthearted question. I know. You guys sell a couple
of varieties of house plant, diablo, wind, pancake ice. What
goes into coming up with names for different strains of weed?
It's somewhat. We use weather Systems. That is of our
naming convinced is weather Systems. And it's all based on
Pineapple Express, a movie we made a long time ago,
(30:04):
which is thought so yeah, because and we got that
name because we're from the Pacific Northwest and we would
always hear about the Pineapple Express was coming in and
we were always like, man, that's just a cool name.
And then and then as we started daming others strains,
we I mean, I think I remember just like googling,
(30:25):
like weather system names, and they were like, oh, there's
a lot of really cool names on here, and it
kind of follows our own little philosophy. But the truth
is that it is completely made up. A lot of
it's some of it is combinations of of the strains
in some way, but those are made up as well. Um.
We we used to have a scene in Pineapple Spress
that was cut out where someone like that where the
main dealer guy was like naming the strains and it
(30:46):
was just him, just like Da Vinci's brush, purple people eader.
You know, you know, it's just it's completely it's whenever
you think it's like that joke of the Wire where
they're always selling like the it's like it always it
has a new name aim every season. The pandemic. Yeah. Now,
you mentioned that you came here for a few reasons,
(31:07):
but to have a greater cultural impact. Do you feel
thus far in your career that you've had the cultural
impact you would like to? I think we've had. I mean,
I think I look at um the fact that a
lot of the movies we've made have are still around
and there's still movies that people talk about, and when
people talk about their favorite comedies. I'm amazed still at
(31:28):
how often movies I've contributed to in some way, either
very directly or someone indirectly, but still I'm a part
of them. Um are like on that list of like
the kind of movies that defined comedy for a certain
you know, age group. And and also I mean eighteen
year old to like super Bad is one of their
(31:50):
favorite movies still, which um is is it? It's shocking
to me, but um I think, like I can't deny
now in a way that is nice that like a
lot out of the stuff we've done has to the
test of time, and it's kind of woven its way
into cinematic culture or North American culture. I don't even
know how you would. I think it's so global at
this point that it's hard to it's hard to define it,
(32:12):
I think, but it's amazing. Often I'll go on Twitter
and mclovin is trending for some reason. I see that
all the time. I know, on the day of his
birthday on his face, mclovin on some radio shows Blake
grow Friends wearing mclovin shoes like and it's just it's
one those six drove. It's like it's still like this
(32:33):
is a joke we wrote when we were I think
fifteen years old, and like it's I'm I'm forty and
a couple of months and it's like it's still and
to what I'm saying about getting better, Like I can't
say I've come up with a bunch funnier joke in
the last well, I mean it is if that's your
peak at fifteen, it's a good peeks because it still works.
(32:58):
I mean every time super Bad on TV and and
I catch it, I just think this is some funny ship.
And so I think that has to feel good to
know like that the work has that kind of longevity
because it's been a minute since super Bad came out
and people are still you know, it's still relevant. No,
it's totally nice. It was like the w g A
just put it on the list of like the hundred
best screenplays of the twenty one century or something like that,
(33:19):
and it was like, I was, I think it's literally
the only one on the list that was not nominated
for many awards. It was actually dominated for zero awards.
But it's but that's what I'm also was saying about movies,
like it was a joke I made a while ago,
but I kind of like it's like we should be
giving Oscar, like the Oscar should be on like a
(33:40):
five year lag like, because I actually think that is
around as much time as it takes to actually understand
if a movie is good or not and it has
done what it's meant to do or not. Because I
think there's some movies where, like the year they come out,
it seems like a cultural station and then you look
(34:01):
back even like two years later, and you're like that
one best picture, like it's no one even thinks about
that movie. And then we look at some movie that
like got no awards or no one was really talking
about it in that way at the time, and it's
like everyone loves it, and every time it's on TV,
everyone watches its trending on Twitter all the time because
people are like sharing scenes that they you know, and
(34:22):
and and that takes years to really under to define
in a lot of ways, but people really like to
do this stuff fast, I guess I think so. I mean,
I think people have short memories, you know, because one
of my favorite movies is a movie I saw probably
years ago, which was Empire Records, which I loved so
much over the last weekend. It's so good, and in
(34:46):
my phone I put it on an annual reminder that
like April. I think it's April eighth. April eighth is
Rex Manning Day. And I was going through my calendar
this morning for some things I'm doing in April, and
I was like, oh my god, Rex Manny Day is
coming up. And that movie was a failure and terrible reviews,
like it was reviewed, like actually went back was reading
(35:08):
the old reviews for it and just being like, you
didn't get it. You don't know what you had, Like
it's it holds up so well. It's a really interesting
it feels so real. The tone was really good. It's funny,
it's very there's like it's like a very upfront look
at like suicide in a lot of way, he's impression
(35:29):
and like there's a lot of incredibly heavy themes that
are dealt with very like matter of factly. It's a
great movie and like yeah, and then it was there
was also still that like subplot about like corporate culture
taking over like the good indies, which is still a
thing like that. They were kind of a head at
the time. Hated Yeah. Now last year I read your
(35:53):
memoir Yearbook, And at first I was a little hesitant
to read it because I have often been disappointed in
books for funny people. But I loved it. It was
very funny, thank you, and very warm, And so I
was wondering if you enjoyed the experience of writing a memoir.
I did memorist essays. Yeah, I mean I don't. I
(36:15):
really enjoyed it. Um, it was hard once I have
the stories. The hardest part was like, is this a
good enough thing to write about? Basically? And I think like,
and honestly like, your book was very inspirational to me,
that feminist and I had read some things you had
read about essay writing, and it did actually help me
fraighten it because I actually think you kind of freed
(36:36):
me in some ways because I've heard you talk about
how like they don't have to be these like perfect things,
you know what I mean, Like it doesn't have to
be like oh, and then like the last line wraps
it all up, you know, which was very freeing and actually,
like I think made me realize that some things that
I had didn't know how to contextualize perfectly would maybe
still be good stories if I just kind of didn't
(36:57):
pretend that there was some bow I was trying to
put Youally, I find that and I tell my students
this all the time. You only have to give the
audience of what they might want. You don't have to
resolve everything for them. And I also I'm a firm
believer in trusting your reader. People can put fill the
they can fill in the blanks or not, but like,
let the reader do a little work, they're going to
(37:18):
get there. Yeah it was. I did really enjoy it,
and I wasn't sure I was. I was honestly very
worried about how um More than most things I do,
I was worried about how it would be received. And
then one of the nice things I realized is that
like books in general, are just so much less scrutinized
(37:39):
than movies. Welcome to the great sorrowful truth about writing,
but which was kind of a lovely surprise. Yeah, you know,
if you're only a writer, like a book writer, then
the amount of scrutiny you get can be incredibly overwhelming.
But going from like film where millions and millions of
(38:01):
people watch movies, website dedicated to categorizing your films, like yeah,
it was it was honestly a pleasant surprise, and I
mostly wanted it to be funny, like I actually like
wanted to just like make people laugh. And I felt
(38:21):
like I could maybe get it to a place like
in our movies where it kind of just gets rolling
and like you don't even know like when it happened.
You just kind of look back and you're like, oh,
I'm like laughing really hard and have been for a
few minutes because I've been like swept up in like
the stakes of the story and what's happening and how
ridiculous it is. And that was like really what I wanted.
(38:42):
And that's been like one of the nicest things to
see as feedback, just as random people are reading it,
and you know, I'm seeing messages that like it's a
lot of like I'm like alone by the pool, laughing
like an idiot as people look at me. And that's
and that's like truly the only and and and that
was when I sat down, I was like, what can
I add to this landscape. It's like, I'm not going
(39:03):
to write the smartest book. I have not read the
most interesting life or going to lead the most interesting
life out there. But I feel like people love super
Bad and it's very personal and and and it's and
I think because they can tell it's personal and this
all those steaks ascribed to like when those things happened
to you as a young person and as you get older.
(39:24):
And that was really like what I thought I could
try to do was like take that energy and and
and expanded into a book, which yeah, I I really enjoyed.
I don't think I have any more good stories. Though.
One of the things that struck me the most in
the book was the way in which you have been
kind of doing the same thing for a really long time,
(39:47):
and you have surrounded yourself with the same people for
a really long time. And and not a lot of
people can say that that their friends at fifteen are
their friends as they are nearing forty. Don't have you
been able to have that kind of longevity in some
of your most intimate relationships. Um, I've been a part
(40:10):
of a writing team since I was like thirteen years old,
and those are very like formative years and I truly
and me and my partner talked about this a lot,
like I think our brains formed around the idea of
like partnership and collaboration and how to create what could
(40:30):
be a very long lasting and productive relationship with people.
We've been very geared to it for so long because
even at a very young age, we were like, I
think we could do this forever. Like I think, I
think if we do this right, all this fun we're
having we're just kind of hanging out and we're smoking
weed and making each other laugh and like, but we're
(40:52):
right and working hard and really with a shared goal,
like I think, if we do this right, we can
keep doing it. And and one of the things about
it has been like communication and really like navigating the
the intricacies of these types of relationships and acknowledging that
it's a relationship that needs work like any other relationship,
(41:13):
you know. Um, And what's funny is like those are
conversations that are in some ways very like mature conversations
that like me and Evan and Kyle and aarial or
to other people who work with and I went, I
grew up with them as well, And um, they're kind
of conversations we've been having since, like since we were
teenagers about like Okay, I don't like this when you work,
I need this, I I I shut down when when
(41:34):
you say this to me, you know, I take it personally.
When you do this, you might not be meaning that,
but I it hurts my process because I feel like
you're really like belittling where I'm coming from. Creatively, things
like that are like our conversations we've been having for
for twenty five years now. And and I've seen a
(41:55):
lot of teams break up and a lot and and
our personalities are very compatible. And if Evan even remotely
was jealous of like the attention that I get in
relation to him, it would not function. But he just isn't.
And if anything, he is thrilled that he doesn't have
(42:17):
to deal with that. And that is like we've and
we talk about that a lot in that, like we
have worked very hard, but we are fortunate in that,
Like he does have this personality thing where he just
is not jealous of the fact that I organically am
absorbing a lot of the attention that surrounds our projects.
(42:37):
And I've seen other teams where one of the people
is like a performer and the other one isn't, and
it becomes very disruptive sometimes and and and the the
jealousy really like destroys the relationship and and he's just
nor should he be. But he has never been jealous
of the fact that I'm like the famous one and
(42:59):
he isn't you know. Um, and that's been like a
real like like that. That's been one of the most
beneficial things I think. Yeah, that's a that's a blessing
because indeed, partnerships can go awry when one person gets
more attention, at least on one level. Yeah, I really
appreciate you coming on my podcast. I have just one
last question, which is just the typical last question. What
(43:22):
do you have coming up on the horizon creatively? Oh wow,
that's a guy I'm in this show Pam and Tommy,
which is on Hulu. I just drove by the billboard. Yeah,
so yeah, that's on Hulu February twond Um. I played
the guy who stole pamla Anderson and Tommy Lee's sex tape. Um,
who was a disgruntled carpenter and uh, it's a don't
(43:46):
piss off your carpenter is one of the morals of
the lessons to be learned, Lessons to be learned and uh.
The season three of The Boys is coming out um
this summer, and we have an animated anthology show based
on The Boy that comes out um before then in March,
I believe. So yeah, a lot of a lot of
Seth Rogan related content coming your way. Well, I look
(44:09):
forward to it and also following your continued adventures and pottery.
Please do. I love it and it's on It's on
my fireplace mantle. Everyone asks I do name drop it.
I do. I'm not gonna lie. I'm not above it.
Thank you so much, Seth. This has been a really
discreat Thank you. I appreciate it. So that's our conversation
(44:38):
with Seth Rogan, and of course Matt's barking in the
background because he's going through a little barkie phase. You
can keep up with me and the podcast on social
media on Twitter at our g a y and Instagram
at Roxanne Gay seventy four. Our email addresses Roxanne Gay
Agenda at gmail dot com if you want to share
(44:58):
your thoughts on what you think in about the show
from Luminary. The Roxanne Gay Podcast is produced by Curtis
Fox Are in turn as you Sanya Moreno. Production support
provided by Caitlin Adams. I'm Roxanne Gay, your favorite bad feminist.
Thank you for listening. Yep, yep, yep. I mean, anytime
(45:22):
someone even thinks about looking at this house, markt Max
has something to say about it. It's truly some
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