Help Save The Planet and perhaps even our Podcast by enjoying this very sustainable entertaining and informative Green Naked Lunch. Next week, Phil & David will welcome the iconic actor and longtime environmentalist Ted Danson in a conversation recorded June 5th at the Environmental Media Association's Impact Summit. Hear lovingly recycled highlights of previous Impact Summit talks with Ed Begley, Jr., Wolfgang Puck, Jane Fonda, Wendie Malick and Graham Nash. To find out more about the work of EMA go to https://www.green4ema.org. To learn more about building community through food and "Somebody Feed the People," visit the Philanthropy page at philrosenthalworld.com.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Tropical Smoothie Cafe believes you deserve alittle vacate every day, not just once
a year. Get on tropic timewith bright and refreshing smoothies, tropical bowls,
wraps, and flatbreads even from TropicalSmoothie Cafe and fan fave summer Mocktel
Smoothies just hit the pool deck atTropical Smoothie Cafe. So visit one of
(00:20):
Tropical Smoothie Cafes fourteen hundred plus locations, or order online or through their app.
Hey Phil, Hello, this isgoing to be our greenest episode yet.
That doesn't mean we're gonna get nauseous. Did something go bad in the
fridge? Yeah? Well, possiblythat can happen in an environmentally conscious world.
(00:42):
For the past two years, we'vebeen recording live naked Lunch episodes.
At the Environmental Media Association's Impact Summitlast year, we had a great conversation
with the legendary actor and og environmentalistEd Begley Junior. Remember that I do.
I was there and he's an oldfriend of you, absolutely, and
(01:02):
it was an honest environmental discussion becausehe was part of the reason you made
an early pioneering attempt at something environmentalthat didn't quite pan out. What was
that something on your roof? Ibelieve, Oh the solar panels. Yeah,
those I got, you know,because I'm an early adapter. I
think I got the first solar panels, which was just a piece of tinfoil
(01:23):
with a wire. But now nowthere's things we can do. The year
before that, you got us oneof your friends, one of the greatest
chef, maybe the greatest most famouschef in the world, to come and
talk to us at the Impact sumIt Wolf kank Puck. Yes, and
that was great because we did this. This event happens at the Pendry in
West Hollywood. Yeah, and itreally helps when you have a chef on
(01:47):
and he has three or four restaurantsin the building. That's right. We
had a lovely launch. Maybe youwould like us to exactly he made us
coffee. I don't even drink coffee, but I had it. So what
we're gonna do is put together thosetwo episodes, because again Phil has come
through and booked one of the legendsof show business and a longtime environmentalist for
(02:08):
this year and it will be outnext week. A Conversation with your friend
mister Ted Danson and how long haveyou known Ted? You guys have recently
become close. We met years andyears ago. You know, we were
neighbors for a while when we renteda house in Malibu. He had a
(02:28):
house there. I was on acouple of episodes of Kerb and he was
on there. And he's just oneof the loveliest, greatest guys in the
whole world. And he married verywell. He married very well Mary stein
Bergin. Plus he's iconic. TedDanson your friend. Oh no, behind
the bar and Jeers. We're goingto get to talk to him obviously about
(02:49):
environmentalism. He's helped start I thinkOceania and all sorts of things. But
he's great. He also is startingnow a podcast, a very environmental podcast,
because who is his co host,Woody Woody Harrelson. Yeah, well
that's green. So well, he'sgoing to be very green, but Ted
will be you know, green inanother way. Yes, and you love
(03:14):
I love cheers? Did you lovecheers? Ni Sa Right? But until
then, here's our very green NakedLunch with not only those two guys,
but conversations about the environment with JaneFonda, with Wendy Mallick, who's another
member of the EMMA World. JaneFond has been honored by EMMA the organization
(03:37):
and Graham Nash, who we hada really interesting talk about the environment.
Welcome lefties, Let's build the beansto the fat, food for thought,
(04:00):
Jok's own tap, talking with themouthsful, having fun, Bee's Cake,
humble Pie, serving up class lovely, the dressing all the side, It's
naked lunch clothing option. Here's someof Phil and David's inspiring conversation from the
(04:21):
twenty twenty three EMMA Impact Summit aboutbeing green, show business, shingles,
NEPO, babies, and so muchmore with the great at Begley Junior.
But Rachelle reminded me that we metat Norman Lear's eighty fifth birthday party,
which is already a very long timeago. Yes, oh my god,
I can't believe he got like onehundred. He's one hundred. I know,
(04:45):
right, he's one hundred and one. Maybe now close, don't rush
him, don't rush them, Okay, whatever you're saying. But right after
that you asked if you could comeor Rachelle asked if you guys could come
over, because I you heard Ihad one of the first no flush urinals
(05:05):
installed in a private home exactly,and you wanted to feature it on your
show. Are you toilet dropping now? Yes? And you were otherwise a
pioneer with not just solar on yourroof like me, these overhanging you know,
cantilevered panel systems. You had themembedded onto your very roof. Your
roof was the solar panel. Youhad the solar shingles, which nobody had.
Phil Rosenwaldmonica, Well, thanks,can I tell you something? They
(05:27):
crapped out after three years? Ohthat's not good. No, so i'd
like I asked you here today fora refund. You'll get a full refund.
Let me get my AMEX out.But let me ask you you got
a very high limit will of courseit was. Anytime you go into a
new technology, you're taking a riskthat that might happen. So let me
(05:48):
ask you, as an expert.I'm assuming these things have gotten way better
and more efficient. What I washoping for, and clearly i'm learning now
did not happen. There's a morphouspanels, which are different than polycrystalline panels,
the kind that I have on myroof. There is that what I
had? Yeah? Yeah, youhad. All the shingles have what are
(06:08):
called amorphous panels, like a littlepocket calculator of those things. Yes,
the polychrystal of the kind you seemost of in the solar farms, and
so those, as it turns out, don't have the life we had hoped
for. The polycrystaline lasts a longtime. I was rooting for you,
and I guess it didn't work out. It's okay. But the other thing
I didn't know was if unless youwash them all the time they're covered,
they get covered in soot and dirtand smog and whatever else, and they're
(06:30):
not gonna work. I'm up therein the roof a lot with Rochelle cheering
me on going get near the edge? Did you play closer? Now go
the other way a little further,a little further and picture back up a
bit. Ah. She has agood insurance policy. Yeah, my polycrystalline
panels from the eighties, I don'thave those anymore because I've built a new
(06:53):
home. But those from nineteen eightynine are still working in somebody else's house.
I've talked to them occasionally. You'velost some of their wadded, but
they haven't gone crap on you,okay, so what is the future of
that. The future of polycrystalline isvery good because the old ones that would
make even the polycrystalline there would makethem more by hand with some machines involved.
(07:14):
Now they're all robotics, so allof the different connections are much better.
I had about four or five panelsout of about one hundred that got
very poor wattage for after a whilebecause of the connections. They were done
by a person. Now that they'redone by robotics, that doesn't happen.
You could see in the back ofthe little burn marks. Burn marks are
a result of electrical resistance, andthat means that you're not getting the watage
(07:38):
you shoot out of the panels.But they replaced them. The five that
were defective, okay, they stoodby. There's a warranty. If you
lose more than I think it's tenpercent of your wattage in a decade,
new panels, they send them toyou. If you lose fifteen percent in
twenty years, they send them toyou, and after that you're on your
own. So now is the timeto redo my roof? Is that right?
Yes? Now it's good, quitereal? And is there a brand
(08:00):
you like, I don't know,is there some someone we can plug not
in the shingle department. I gotto look into that. I mean,
I, of course do have shingles, as you know, but not that
kind. There's a shot for thatnow, yeah, penicillin. Let's can
we talk at a little bit aboutthe roots of You're still on the shingles.
Okay, go back to shingles.Go ahead, the roots of your
environmentalism, because, uh, Iremember when Jeff Goldbloom, when you got
(08:24):
your Lifetime Achievement word at the EMMAAwards, and I was working with your
friend Jeff, who had many greatthings to say about you. He said
there were things like, I lovethis guy so much. We've gone to
all of each other's weddings, hesaid. He said, I don't know
if he was cheap first or anenvironmentalist first. True, by the way,
all true. So well, Iwant to ask your Now, I
(08:46):
know your father because you are theoriginal NEPO baby in Hollywood. That's correct,
your father, you said. Ithink you said something along the lines
of he was cheap around the housewith I didn't want to, didn't you
he didn't you excuse me? Hedid not use the word environmentalists. But
he was one. We turned offthe lights, turn off the water,
save strings, saved tinfoil, youknow, watched every gallon of gas,
(09:09):
every everything. He was the sonof Irish immigrants. He lived through the
Great Depression, so we had thatwhole, that ethic and that way of
thinking. So he gave that tome. The other great gift he gave
he said, Eddie, don't justtalk about stuff. Because I was complaining
about the smog to him in nineteenseventy before he passed. He said,
I know I'm against smog too,that's what you're against. But what are
you four? What are you doingto make a difference, you know,
(09:33):
try to build the electric car.Yeah, let's have a hand for that.
Turn a little this way. Becausethese people can't they can't see you.
I'm very I don't even though thereare people over there. I'm very
sorry. Oh my god. Yeah, I want difficult Hollywood people. They
paid, they paid a lot ofmoney to see Ed Begley and and Ed
you welcome. Can we go fromthe top again for the yes for your
(09:54):
uh four. To prepare for this, I actually spent all morning watching season
one of sant Elsewhere and it struckme that your life was changed. And
by the way it holds up sowell. And it's on Hulu streaming for
free, so watch very kind.It is a good show. I've seen
a couple of them lately. Ohgreat, I can't watch a hospital show.
Even that show has ties to yourenvironmentalism? And am I believe?
(10:16):
Because am I right in that?Blythe Danner told me a story when she
was honored a few years ago thatearly in this organization, wasn't blythe sort
of part of the sort of initialenvironmental sort of definitely was. She moved
big on recycling in Santa Monica,where she and Bruce Palchow lived, and
their kids of Jake and Gwyneth werebig into it, and she was a
(10:39):
dedicated environmentalist for years. So yougot to give her her credit. She
was trying to influence Bruce on everyshow that he did, and so she
was quite successful. The other thingI talked about the positive influence, which
was my dad that started me innineteen seventy. The other one was being
in Boy Scouts. There was aboy Scout and I saw nature up close
and personal. But the negative wasas compelling as an I lived in smoggi
(11:01):
LA. So you couldn't run fromhere to that door where we came in
without wheezing like this, like anasthmatic. And I'm not an asthmatic,
nor was I ever back then.I've just you know, but I had
trouble breathing. And now we gotto remember our successes sometimes too. We
have four times the cars in LAfor nineteen seventy millions more people, but
only a fraction of this smog.We all did that together, give ourselves
(11:24):
a hand with catalytic converted on cars, with cleaner power plants, with all
the stuff that we did at yourhouse, in my house, and Bruce
Paltrow and Blyth Danner did it allmade a difference. Now, having said
that, there's still people near thesefulfillment centers and other the ports of Long
Beach and Los Angeles are breathing verydirty air. We got to clean that
part up for them because locally,for them, it's the air gent.
(11:46):
Yeah, a big hand for that. But all over the world, all
over the world, because it's allinterconnected. It's the sky doesn't stop at
the border. It sure doesn't,so we need to it needs to be
a worldwide Ever, do you worrysometimes that the other countries that are not
rolling along with us are canceling outwhat we do. I worry about that,
(12:09):
but I don't get hung up onthat. I'm still going to do
it. You know, back then, when I start doing it, people
would say, what difference does itmake you? This make you one guy
driving your little electric car in nineteenseventy you're recycling? Who cares? Nobody
else is why you're bothering? Well, bit by bit you make a difference.
That's right, and you can ifwe lead by example and we export
some of these good technology that weproved makes sense and dollars and cents really
(12:31):
makes financial sense to the people inIndia and in China. If we can
sell them on that, in goodAmerican technology that does that, we'll win
them over to have more solar andwind than all of it. But we
got to do what we can dofirst, and just for office, yes,
to see wouldn't it be great?No more actors in the White House?
Yeah? But you're you're smart.You can Did you ever consider it?
(12:54):
Not? Really? I would votefor you, you would, Okay,
I'm going to run then, PhilRosenld behind me. I can do
it. Listen what I learned inshow business. I'm sure you've learned this
too. You're not going to getthe whole audience, but you may as
well keep yours exactly. Make ashow that you're going to love. Everybody
loves Raymond. You love the showyourself. I love the show. You
(13:15):
make a show that people love thatyou love yourself, and the whole country
and the whole world's gonna love it. The best advice I ever got was
do the show you want to dobecause in the end they're going to cancel
you anyway exactly. And by theway, yeah, that's so true.
And we had Pam Adlin on recently, and you've repeated that to so many
other show winners that that's become sortof like shared wisdom. But a lot
(13:37):
of people, when they make ashow or do anything in life, they
think, if I can just ifI just take all their notes, if
I just do what they want meto do, then I'll get on and
then I can do it. Yeah, how that never works, never,
never, ever, because you've sulliedyour original idea right to the point where
it stinks, and then they don'tput it on exactly, and they're not
going to say, Oh, Iguess it was my note that made it
(13:58):
bad. Exactly right. Make ashow you want to see, Make a
movie you want to see yourself.Summer Mocktail smoothies are here for a limited
time at Tropical Smoothie Cafe. MocktailHour on the pool deck is a sip
(14:20):
away. Try the fan favorite islandPunch, mango berry Cosmo or watermelon mojito
smoothies today. Can you get mea few extra towels on the pool deck
while you're here. You're gonna needone with the watermelon mochitles or one bite
of the Tropical bowls from the TropicalSmoothie Cafe and you'll instantly feel like you're
celebrating. Cabana side Tropical Smoothie Cafesfor a pineapple, mango and watermelon swawe
(14:46):
all summer long. Grab a refreshingisland punch, mango berry Cosmo and watermelon
Mohito mocktail smoothie and meet us poolside. Enjoy sunshine by the spoonful with
the Asai bowl from the Tropical SmoothieCafe. We love Tropical Smoothie Cafe,
so visit one of Tropical Smoothie cafesfourteen hundred plus locations, order online or
(15:09):
through their app. Let's get backon the bike to hear ed Begley Junior
tell phill and David more about whatit's been like being Hollywood's own mister Green.
You work more than anyone I know, So how do you? How
(15:30):
do you work that? Like?I know, I know it wasn't I
know it wasn't always easy to bemister Green. In fact, did your
agents tell you, hey, knockit off with that stuff? Because people
in the nineties. I had abath decade in the nineties where I didn't
work much. Not I was neveron a blacklist. I'm sure I was
(15:50):
not on a what I mean list? Yes, right, but I was.
I gave people the creeps. Ithought I was gonna come up with
them and go, how did you? How dare you take the limo to
this event? You know, whenI had ridden my bike or something.
But I'm not You were never judgmentyou know me, I was never judgmental.
This is what I do. Ifyou want to do it yourself,
I'll show you what I did.And that's how it started. There wasn't
(16:11):
like a There wasn't like a momenton a film set where you said,
I can't stand the waist anymore,you must all change. No, never
did that, but from the otherside, people literally thought I was gonna
like shut down the production. Itwas. There was a movie called Pagemaster
with Macaulay Culkin. I played thedad. We had the scene coming up.
Bron'm sours to drive a just backdown a driveway in our family station
(16:33):
wagon. And I show up thatday to do the scene and I could
see people with headsets looking at meand going, yeah, he's here now,
uh huh. No, nobody's talkedto him yet. Oh my god,
I'm getting fired. And finally somebodycomes to ed, sit down.
We need to talk for a second, I said, Am I being let
go? I said no, no, not at all. But we don't
want any trouble at us. Idon't want any trouble either. What's the
problem is, we've got a scenetonight. The scene. Yeah, I
(16:56):
saw the call sheet. I knowthe script, the driveway and the thing.
We can just roll it down,I swear to God. And we've
looked. We looked everywhere in America. There is no such thing as an
electric station wagon. It doesn't exist, and it's truly. There was no
electric station wagon then or now unlesssomebody converted one. They couldn't find an
(17:17):
electric station wagon. They thought Iwas going to storm off the set,
like, how dare you have meback down my gravity in a regular gasoline
car. You've never been militant,You've always been nice about it. Where
did they get this idea that youwere gonna be this? I don't know.
It happened another time too, thesame thing, the headsets and people
that ice here. Now, whatis it already? I find I said
(17:40):
I'd learned. They said we'll havethe recycling bins out by noon. I'm
sorry somebody forgot them. They thoughtI was going to storm off because they
didn't have recycling bins. I wantthem to have the bins, don't get
me wrong, and I'd love itif they had an electric car for me
in a show, But I'm notgonna I'm not gonna get fired over it.
Do you think it was the latenight shows that maybe made Oaks and
you became like that became your identity. The media created a monster. I
(18:04):
think that might be it. TheSimpsons did a wonderful episode on the screen.
It was very very funny. Idrive a little go cart, this
car that's powered by my own senseof self satisfaction. Very good stuff.
It's funny because it's true. That'sa good joke. Though it's a good
joke, come on. Things goteasier after that. But before that,
(18:25):
I worked six weeks for Brian Grazerand Ron Howard on a movie called Greedy,
and I worked two weeks on amovie called Batman Forever. Joel Schumacher
gave me that job. And thatwas the sum total of the nineties.
I worked television. I could goto Canada and do a movie, or
New Zealand or Australia do movie.But I was not in any studio movies
(18:47):
in the nineties at all. Again, not a blacklist, but it just
I freaked people out. Wow,and did it go the other way ever
where that you're on the set,I'm sure you're gonna you know, because
you're here for doing this, thisand this, because you you made a
good impression. Yeah, I think. Let me be clear, Christopher Guest
bailed me out of movie jail,no question, with best in show than
(19:11):
a mighty wind in all those movies. He literally like signed for my things
and had electric vehicle waiting at moviejail. I'm joking, of course,
but he you know, he putme in that movie. And then somehow
I was okay again. But itwas it was a long dry period there.
But again, don't throw any benefitsfrom me then or now. I
was fine. I always, youknow, worked in television, and I
(19:33):
also worked. Somehow television was different. I don't know why, but I
worked. You know, I workedenough to get by for sure, and
I had very low bills because Igrew my food and I made my own
electricity. So I was fine.And now here's a taste of Phil and
David speaking at the twenty twenty twoEMMA Impact Summit about sustainable and delicious food
(19:56):
with the legendary chef Wolfgang Puck.Yes, Wolfgang, A question where the
amazummit. So in addition to howwe're talking a lot about how you have
sustained this amazing career, how doesbeing you know, thinking about being sustainable,
about being environmental? How does thatHow does working towards not just a
great career, but to save theplanet. How has that all worked in
(20:18):
your you know, in America,we have to speak words now found to
table. Yeah, well, Igrew up on a farm. Yeah,
there was no other way. Istill remember as a kid when I got
my first when we got somebody puta can of pineapple and I we opened
the can and tasted the pineapple andsaid, oh my god, this is
(20:40):
amazing. Pineapples in the can.We didn't have can photools said, I
wonder how they got the pineapple inthe can. You know, as a
kid, so we did not haveanything, but we went in the forest
and picked raspberries and blueberries and blackberriesand mushrooms, you name it. And
you know, my mother had achicken coop. We got the eggs in
the springtime. She made fried chickenbecause all the roosters got their head cut
(21:04):
off and fried and the famous onescould lay the eggs. They stayed so
they were spared their life. Andso for me it was always normal.
So when I started spargo, Ifound friends down in Rancho, Santa Fe
who became friends afterwards in the Japanesefamily, the Gino family, and I
(21:26):
used to drive down there every weekto pick up vegetables, to pick up
strawberries and every sing and I stillremember Sidney Poitier. One time I had
this pile of strawberries. And helooked at it and said, Wolf,
what did you do to these strawberries? And I said, what do you
mean, nothing, We just pickedthem up this morning at the farm and
he I said, taste it,and I said, oh my god,
(21:47):
I never tasted strawberries like that.Wow. And it's true at that time
there was no farmer's market in LosAngeles. Now you have them all over
and I said, Harry Sperrys becamemore famous than anybody with their strawberr there
is, but at that time therewas nothing. So the sun Frank from
the son of the owners of theranch. He drove up on Sunday and
(22:08):
he was really excited to see somemovie stars and he walked behind and was
making pizzas. And I always said, why you don't open a little pizza
stand next to your farm stand downthere? So it was really very special
and to me that was always important, and still it's today to really support
the farmers out there because I grewup on a farm. And when you
(22:29):
look at today, just like inmany other businesses, all these big factories,
farms are taking over where they plantthousands of acres of one crop,
which is really not good for thesoil. You know, they planted,
they're in in the out, andthey had so much artificial stuff in it,
which is not good. And soI think to really support small farmers.
(22:51):
That was always for me a wayto go. You know. I
was always really trying to help themalong. And I said, I don't
want to have somebody who is sittingin an office somewhere taking orders from a
restaurant and then sending them out makethe money. I want the farmers to
make the money. And I stillremember the cheat on farm. We got
this beautiful white corn, and Itook my mother there and I said,
(23:17):
you have to taste the corn.She said, you eat corn raw like
that. I said, this isso good, so sweet. So she
tasted it and says, oh mygod, this is amazing. So I
gave you some seeds to take itback to Austria, because we had corn
in Austria, but only for theanimals. They fed the cows and whatever
are we had. So she tookit back and grew corn there, and
then the neighbors grew white corn.And then all of a sudden, they
(23:41):
are tiny little village with ten houses, everybody was having white corn and some
steamed it, some grilleded, andsome ate it raw. So it was
amazing. In twenty twenty three,Phil and David were thrilled to welcome Phil's
friend, the legendary actress and activistJane Fonda, to lunch. Here's some
of the environmental talk from that farchanging two episode conversation with Jane Fonda,
(24:02):
an EMMA Lifetime Achievement Award honoree.Yes, we have the problem of democracy
being taken away. We have aRoe V. Wade being taken taken away.
We don't you think now they've gonetoo far? And then there's in
Kansas. Yeah, no, it'sit's really is that what it takes good
people standing up is what it takesclimate change. I'm going to get there.
(24:30):
It's like, oh yeah, soyeah, there's we got a lot
of problems, like people, there'sa whole lot of people who don't like
democracy right and shocked how unpopular democracyis in a democracy over What do you
think that is that it's trending aroundthe world. I don't know how to
articulate it, but I think thatit's connected to what's happening to the planet.
(24:56):
You know, it's like everything hasa sort of a life cycle after.
I mean, the second law ofthermodynamics is entropy. Everything decays and
declines, and I think it's timethat we're declining as human beings that were
(25:18):
devolving into riots and killing and civilwars and badness all around. We've been
harming the planet and knew it sincethe late nineteen seventies. We knew it
because the scientists who worked for Exxonand Chevron told the executives, what you're
(25:41):
doing is going to cause mass destructionof farmlands, droughts, fires, millions
of people wandering the earth trying tofind a safe place. That we were
warned. They knew when they lied. Okay, had we not been lied
to and we had fessed up towhat was happening, then that was like
(26:02):
forty fifty years ago. We couldhave gradually done something about it. But
because they lied, they being theoil companies. I can't believe that the
head of an oil company was oursecretary of state. I mean, that
just is so sick anyway, Sonow we it's a crisis because if the
(26:25):
world heats beyond a certain point,then ecosystems that we depend on for our
life begin to collapse, most particularlyWhat I's on my mind is the ocean.
We get seventy percent of our oxygenfrom the ocean. If the ocean
dies and it's on its way todying, and forests are being cut down
because they provide the rest of theoxygen, what are we going to do.
(26:48):
We're not going to do. Imean one hundred and one degrees in
the water off Miami and say,look what just happened in Maui. Look
what happened in twenty nineteen in Australia. I mean, it's here, we
know it. We can see itall around us, and birds falling dead
out of the sky and so forth. And unless we can fix this quickly,
(27:11):
the rest doesn't matter. I mean, there's already scientific papers now being
written called the near term societal collapse, And how do we prepare her?
You know? And it's like peopleare going, it's Greta's right. It's
like she knew because she's a sciencenerd with this incredible focused mind, because
she's on the spectrum that what thescience was saying was right. But she
(27:36):
didn't. On the other hand,she didn't believe it because if it was
true, nobody would be living theway we're living. I mean, nobody
would be going around business as usual, and she had a nervous breakdown and
she didn't speak or eat for ayear virtually. Her father thinks it stunted
her growth. You know, it'slike, that's why I decided to go
to Washington and get arrested because ofGreta, right, and because you know,
(27:59):
I turned eighty two, and Ifigured people were going to say,
well, God, if she cando it, then maybe I can,
you know what I mean. So, and now this is four year,
three years, four years later,and we still haven't done what we need
to do. And we're living inan oil producing state, California. It's
one of the big oil producing states. And it's been really hard to fight
(28:23):
here. It's the bedrock of oureconomy, well in the world, but
in California in particular. And letme just tell you what's happened. I
want the listeners to know this becauseit's just terrible. We've fought for a
long time to separate oil wells fromcommunities. Two point seven million Californians live
(28:45):
within a kilometer of an oil well, and the doc scientists said that that's
not safe. No, it makesyou say cancer, Yeah, I mean
I have. I've made friends witha young girl who lives in Downey.
She's twenty two now. When shewas nine, she started getting nosebleeds.
Her name is Nollelli Cobo. Shewon the big prize, the Goldman Environmental
(29:07):
Prize, because she started to organizethe community at nine to shut down an
oil well that went in right acrossthe street from her. Her nosebleeds were
so bad she had to sleep sittingup so she wouldn't drown in her own
blood, and everyone in her communitystarted getting sick. Now she's at twenty.
She had a hysterectomy. She hadcancer of a reproduction, but she
succeeded in closing down the oil well. Two point seven million people live under
(29:30):
conditions that are totally not healthy.We could not get until last year anything
done about it. And last yearGovernor knew Some signed bill to create a
thirty two hundred foot setback. It'sthe biggest setback in the country. It's
a kilometer and while it's still notwholly safe, it's safer. Science says
(29:51):
that's that's what should happen. Yay. A lot of celebrating of this is
great. The frontline community so happy. A few weeks later, the oil
companies start mounting a campaign to geta referendum on the ballot next year in
twenty twenty four to overturn it,and they paid people to collect signatures,
and they the people collecting the signaturestold the people sign this because if you
(30:14):
don't sign it and that other billpasses, people are going to start getting
sick in these communities. It's theopposite of the truth. They said.
Gas prices are going to go upbecause of the opposite of the truth.
They spent twenty million dollars getting thesignatures. They got them. It's on
the ballot. The ballots are soyou don't want this to pass because you
(30:36):
want people to be protected, butif you vote no, then it passes.
It's very confusing the way our referendumsystems in California are drawn up.
So apparently they're going to spend twohundred million dollars to get this passed.
I don't know if you've already seenads up on television about how we absolutely
need our oil here or these horriblethings are going to happen. They're so
(30:57):
well done there and they're totally false. So we have to mount an enormous
campaign. We have to try toraise two hundred million dollars to defeat this
because if they win in a statelike California, they're gonna this is gonna
go national. And it's not justaround the setbacks. It's also fast food
(31:21):
workers. They got a bill passthat increases their wages and benefits and stuff,
and the food industry is trying tooverthrow that. They have a ballot
on the measure on the ballot aswell. You only realize how entrenched the
interests are when you find when youhave a governor Newsom, or when you
have like Al Gore was vice president, like how do we not how do
we not made more progress? Youknow Cherry Brown where people who know something,
(31:45):
Cherry Brown would not move a littlefinger against oil. He would not
do it. He was all thesustainability, so the windmills and all of
that, yeah, but not stoppingfossil fuels. And you know, for
a long time, when I wentin twenty nineteen with fire Drill Friday's to
DC, big green organizations at thattime weren't talking about we have to stop
(32:08):
drilling for fossil fuels. And that'swhat we did. That was the big
thing that fought fire Real Friday didis we put the issue of fossil fuels
on the map. It's like there'stwo blades of scissors and you need both
to cut something. You need thewindmills and the solar panels, hydraulic and
everything, but you need You can'tkeep drilling. If you could have all
(32:30):
the windmills in the world, butif you keep drilling, we're not going
to solve the problem. And ouremissions have gone up, not down,
since we've known that we have tostop fossil fuel drilling. These are not
I know that people might hear thisand think, oh, this is lefty
politics. It's not. It's human. It's just it's humanistic. It's not
(32:52):
political. It's just for the peoplethat live in these communities. Yes,
it's there that people of color thedigit. This is because I'm eating a
deal pickle in my throat. Justby the way. I find this so
interesting. I'm so I'm so honoredto be around Jane Fonder that I haven't
(33:15):
eaten. This is the first timeI've never not had my meal. I'm
going to save that for when we'realone. It's because you're smarter than me,
and you don't want to have amouthful when you're talking. That's all
right, No, no, butyou're you're teaching us a mouthful. That's
right. I'm learning anyway. It'swhat I'm going to be doing for the
next year and a half. I'mnot going to even if the strike ends,
(33:35):
I'm not working because this this isa big deal. This is all
hands on deck. We cannot allowCan you give us a link or what's
the best thing people can do tojoin you in this effort? There's a
website? Oh god, Debbie,can you find it? Well, we'll
wink it when we get to thereal we'll put it in the episode and
(33:57):
we'll put that in our notes.Go to the we can go to the
website. By the way, thebill that you're talking about, that Newsome
wants is just for the setback.They're not even saying they can't drill,
are they They can't drill within thirtytwo hundred feet of a community? So
they still could drill, just notyes, unfortunately it's just within thirty two
(34:19):
hundred feet. So but why wouldthey fight that. They should be happy
they are allowed to keep in keepdoing what they're doing, which they shouldn't
even be doing trying to stop thattoo. But this is the most important
thing because there's so many people toand seven point seven million people and they're
poor and they're working people. AndI've visited these communities and it's just I
(34:39):
mean literally, wake up in thebed and you look out and there's an
oil well right there, I meandown in Wilmington. All these playing fields
outside of schools with oil wells allwhere I mean it's it's and the old
oil wells that are within thirty twohundred feet will continue right and even when
(35:00):
they become done like they they're allused up and they're supposed to be capped
off and made safe, they don'tdo it, and so we tax players
have to end up paying for it. I mean, there's an there's a
villain in this story and it's calledoil. It's really bad. When we
interviewed at Begley Junior at the EMMASummit this year, it was one of
(35:22):
the most powerful moments to me,was you know, we had ed's amazing
and conversation was wonderful, and thenwe went to questions from the audience.
In a young I think it wasa young black man who lives in like
El Segundo or something said, thisis fantastic what you're doing here, but
you get an hour outside of here, you will not believe how toxic the
world is. You know, thethese threats, these environmental threats. We
(35:45):
need to address it. Not justhere in you know, West Hollywood,
we need to look everywhere. Let'slet's let's and I think that that's turns
out to be true. That's exactlywhat I'm talking about has nothing to do
with politics. It has to dowith people's lives. I'm protecting the people
who have been already hurt the most. So how about if we propose ed
(36:08):
Begley Junior being the next president ofthe United States. Phil and David both
(36:30):
know and love longtime EMMA board memberWendy Malick, who actually played Phil's wife
in the movie Jutopia. Here's partof their lunch with this great and green
actress, with a guest question fromher close friend, Emma's CEO, Debbie
Levin. I got to know Wendyabout I think like fifteen years ago,
when thanks to Justin Timberlake, Igot to work on something called the m
(36:52):
Awards. And here's a special messagefrom Debbie Levin, who is the Queen
mother. I think that's what thetitle of EMMA. Empress Wendy, My
Wendy. It's Debbie, Debbie levenEnvironmental Media Association, And I'm so excited
that you're here doing this podcast withthe guys. So you have done so
(37:16):
much as an EMMA board member overthe last twenty three years that you have
sat on our board, and obviouslyeveryone adores you. You're such a huge
asset to the organization. But thisis my question, how has EMMA made
a difference in your life. Iactually joined EMMA shortly before Debbie came in
(37:37):
and saved the day because it waskind of it was kind of petering out
the energy level and kind of hadlost its mission and she just infused it
with so much energy. And she'sanother person who just has a likeness of
being. And when you're dealing withclimate change and with any huge existential threat,
(37:58):
you really need people who can bringin some joy and some hope,
and she just epitomizes that. Andone of the first things we did together
this was I think twenty years ago. She's been there I think for twenty
but we started with the EMMA Greenseal, and it took us years to
get it off the ground, butnow it's like everywhere, and we're working
with studios and with businesses and awardshows to try to just raise awareness and
(38:22):
get everybody to be more sustainable.And it's really I think it's impacted in
a really positive way. And initiallyI didn't know. A lot of times
you get involved with groups and itall sounds really great, but you wonder,
really, ultimately is this making reallyany difference. And I have to
(38:44):
say that now more and more people. Our whole, our whole sort of
thrust from the beginning has been lecturingpeople doesn't often change their minds occasionally maybe,
but if you can weave these messagesin storytelling, through musical lyrics and
through novels and articles, if youcan help show people the cause and effect
(39:08):
of what we're dealing with here anddo it in an entertaining way, you're
going to go a lot further.Spoonful of sugar, yeah, yeah.
And I remember one of our firstPSAs we did, I think it was
Gwyneth Paltrow maybe, and it wassomething about Mary Oh, thank you.
(39:29):
See we need young people with reallythank you, thank you. Yeah.
And Cameron Diaz and they did onefor us where they were laughing and talking
about driving electric cars and when theywhen they wash their hair, they turned
off the shower just to save water, and it was really fun and light
and all this stuff. And whenwe first were trying to get people to
drive Prius's, Debbie got one firstand I said, well, that is
(39:52):
the ugliest car if everything that lookslike a stub toe. It was just
she said, I promise you it'llbe like that child that you are going
to grow to love the most,who is like the weird kid but actually
is the most wonderful. And Igot my Prius and I ended up loving
it, and it was sort oflike we were trying to make it really
cool to be green. So it'sa different take and it seems kind of
(40:12):
light and airy sometimes, but that'show you open the door. And I
think get people like on board onehundred percent. And I think it was
entirely because of Larry David being ina super rule that helped too. I'm
sorry in appreioce so Larry David drivinga Prius that I bought my first one,
and like a week later I gotasked by al Gore to work on
an environmental event, and I wasso happy to drive up in my mind,
Yeah, and it made you feelgood, It made me food.
(40:32):
And I still have never not hada hybrid, yeah ever since. Yeah,
it's the me too. Yeah.Well now I'm electric. And the
last few weeks have been the mostI've ever had people who were skeptical go
maybe this climate change thing is real, Like as they're sweating on the picket
line, like it really feels like, Yeah, this we may be building
(40:53):
towards a moment where you can't ignoreit anymore. Maybe even I don't know
how much work could possibly you know, if it's actually one hundred. This
is so astonishing to me to thinkthat the ocean is one hundred degrees in
Miami. It's insane. I meanthat's and the Hudson River Valley, my
daughter's at Bard and that beautiful ChristineHudson River Valley was ninety eight degrees.
(41:19):
And when the air quality was horrificbecause of the fires in Canada, I
was in New York that day thatit was the hottest place on the globe.
I had just come down, takena train down, and I got
out of Penn Station and looked acrossEighth Avenue. I couldn't see the other
side of Eighth Avenue and it wasacrid orange, like it is here after
a really bad fire. It wasastonishing. It was just like, wow,
(41:42):
So there's no place to run andthere's no place to hide, So
you got to get your shit together, people. We got to really yeah.
I was just in Paris, whereit was relatively nice and temperate,
and then I said the sentence Inever thought i'd say to my wife,
I'm so glad we're not in Italy, and I would to spend my whole
life in Italy, but I didn'twant to be there. Now I know,
I know, I know. Andfinally, Phil and David were thrilled
(42:07):
to talk music and environmentalism with atwo time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer
who's long been on the front linesof this cause, Graham Nash. The
second track on the on the recordright after Right Now, is called a
Better Life, Great song. Itwas written by me and my friend George
Merrill, who is a great songwriter. You know, I had number one
(42:28):
records with Whitney Houston. You know, I want to dance with somebody.
I think that she did. Yeah, so George and I wrote this pretty
little song that is kind of likeit's almost like teacher children, you know,
fifty years later, you know,we've got to make We've got to
leave this place a better place forour children. I mean, you know,
it doesn't seem as if we're goingthat way right now, but eventually
(42:52):
we've got to realize that we are. We are going to leave this place
at some point, and we needto leave it better than we have found
it. Which I love the optimumof that even as an idea, because
I've never felt we're going to leavethis world better. But maybe I pray
I'm wrong. We could, Yeah, we could be. Maybe science will
(43:15):
will save us once again, becausethe tooth is you know, with all
these people that say, you know, we've got to save the planet,
got to save the planet, they'renot talking about the planet. They want
to save themselves. If every singlehuman being died incidenttly, this planet would
still keep spinning. Another life formwould eventually in a million years developed.
(43:36):
You see what happened in Chernobyl.Have you seen the nature shows that show
how the wildlife just reclaimed Chernobyl thewhole area, But they're checking the DNA
or some of those animals to tellyou they're finding some pretty weird things.
I hear. I'll bet so whata disaster Chernobyl was. You know,
(43:57):
they're all they're all disasters, andyou know it's all okay for people to
say, well, you know weneed eat energy and this we've made the
nuclear power plants a little small earnthat much more safe. There's nothing safe
about nuclear power. No, there'sno radiation exposure that is safe for human
beings. And literally those are lessonsthat I didn't learn. Pizzeger came to
(44:21):
our both of our schools growing up, and we both went on the clear
water like Don McLean and so thatwas early messaging. But I think a
lot of my political opinions early onit came from like barrel of pain and
soft. It really is depending onwhat gets to your heart, because that's
what I think we learned, evendiscussing it with Ed Begley. You really
have to get to the heart toget people to feel. Same. It's
(44:45):
the same way with songwriting, youknow, particularly with myself, I can
only speak from my mind, butI have to feel something first. Yes,
I have to be moved emotionally insome direction, do I, you
know, I need to feel somethingabout it. And when I feel that
I need to speak, then Itry and do as much research as possible
(45:06):
in terms of am I doing thisrider is just the right rhythm and needs
the right words? Maybe go toGoogle and figure out didn't he'd really say
that, No he didn't. Okay, then you just formulate it, you
know. But it's been it's beena lifetime of trying to explain to people
things they may not care to thinkabout it. And in Barrel of Pain
(45:29):
is a perfect example. And whenI used to live in San Francisco and
from my kitchen window on a clearday, I could fare on islands and
then I was checking up on thefall on Islands and I realized that,
you know, in the late fiftiesthey had taken a boatload of nuclear waste
in barrels and throwing them overboard,but unfortunately they didn't sink. So what
(45:54):
they do They shot them full ofholes and then they sank. And then
somebody sent me a picture one soof this anenemy that was like, no,
that's a monster, right, that'slike a horror movie of it.
Yeah, Yeah, anyway, Soyeah, nuclear power. Yeah, and
we still to this day have nowhereto put it to this day. And
(46:16):
coming up next week, Ted Dansondoes Lunch with Phil and David from the
twenty twenty four Emma Impacts On.Until then, Cheers. Naked Lunch is
a podcast by Phil Rosenthal and DavidWilde. Theme song and music by Brad
Paisley, Produced by Will Sterling.Executive produced by Phil Rosenthal, David Wilde,
and our consulting journalist is Pamela Chalon. If you enjoyed the show,
(46:37):
share it with a friend, Butif you can't take my word for it,
take Phil's and don't forget to leavea good rating and review. We
like five stars. You know,thanks for listening to Naked Lunch, a
Lucky Bastard's production.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe believes you deserve alittle vacate every day, not just once
a year. Get on tropic timewith bright and refreshing smoothies, tropical bowls,
wraps, and flatbreads even from TropicalSmoothie Cafe and fan fave summer Mocktel
Smoothies just hit the pool deck atTropical Smoothie Cafe. So visit one of
(00:20):
Tropical Smoothie Cafes fourteen hundred plus locations, or order online or through their app.
Hey Phil, Hello, this isgoing to be our greenest episode yet.
That doesn't mean we're gonna get nauseous. Did something go bad in the
fridge? Yeah? Well, possiblythat can happen in an environmentally conscious world.
(00:42):
For the past two years, we'vebeen recording live naked Lunch episodes.
At the Environmental Media Association's Impact Summitlast year, we had a great conversation
with the legendary actor and og environmentalistEd Begley Junior. Remember that I do.
I was there and he's an oldfriend of you, absolutely, and
(01:02):
it was an honest environmental discussion becausehe was part of the reason you made
an early pioneering attempt at something environmentalthat didn't quite pan out. What was
that something on your roof? Ibelieve, Oh the solar panels. Yeah,
those I got, you know,because I'm an early adapter. I
think I got the first solar panels, which was just a piece of tinfoil
(01:23):
with a wire. But now nowthere's things we can do. The year
before that, you got us oneof your friends, one of the greatest
chef, maybe the greatest most famouschef in the world, to come and
talk to us at the Impact sumIt Wolf kank Puck. Yes, and
that was great because we did this. This event happens at the Pendry in
West Hollywood. Yeah, and itreally helps when you have a chef on
(01:47):
and he has three or four restaurantsin the building. That's right. We
had a lovely launch. Maybe youwould like us to exactly he made us
coffee. I don't even drink coffee, but I had it. So what
we're gonna do is put together thosetwo episodes, because again Phil has come
through and booked one of the legendsof show business and a longtime environmentalist for
(02:08):
this year and it will be outnext week. A Conversation with your friend
mister Ted Danson and how long haveyou known Ted? You guys have recently
become close. We met years andyears ago. You know, we were
neighbors for a while when we renteda house in Malibu. He had a
(02:28):
house there. I was on acouple of episodes of Kerb and he was
on there. And he's just oneof the loveliest, greatest guys in the
whole world. And he married verywell. He married very well Mary stein
Bergin. Plus he's iconic. TedDanson your friend. Oh no, behind
the bar and Jeers. We're goingto get to talk to him obviously about
(02:49):
environmentalism. He's helped start I thinkOceania and all sorts of things. But
he's great. He also is startingnow a podcast, a very environmental podcast,
because who is his co host,Woody Woody Harrelson. Yeah, well
that's green. So well, he'sgoing to be very green, but Ted
will be you know, green inanother way. Yes, and you love
(03:14):
I love cheers? Did you lovecheers? Ni Sa Right? But until
then, here's our very green NakedLunch with not only those two guys,
but conversations about the environment with JaneFonda, with Wendy Mallick, who's another
member of the EMMA World. JaneFond has been honored by EMMA the organization
(03:37):
and Graham Nash, who we hada really interesting talk about the environment.
Welcome lefties, Let's build the beansto the fat, food for thought,
(04:00):
Jok's own tap, talking with themouthsful, having fun, Bee's Cake,
humble Pie, serving up class lovely, the dressing all the side, It's
naked lunch clothing option. Here's someof Phil and David's inspiring conversation from the
(04:21):
twenty twenty three EMMA Impact Summit aboutbeing green, show business, shingles,
NEPO, babies, and so muchmore with the great at Begley Junior.
But Rachelle reminded me that we metat Norman Lear's eighty fifth birthday party,
which is already a very long timeago. Yes, oh my god,
I can't believe he got like onehundred. He's one hundred. I know,
(04:45):
right, he's one hundred and one. Maybe now close, don't rush
him, don't rush them, Okay, whatever you're saying. But right after
that you asked if you could comeor Rachelle asked if you guys could come
over, because I you heard Ihad one of the first no flush urinals
(05:05):
installed in a private home exactly,and you wanted to feature it on your
show. Are you toilet dropping now? Yes? And you were otherwise a
pioneer with not just solar on yourroof like me, these overhanging you know,
cantilevered panel systems. You had themembedded onto your very roof. Your
roof was the solar panel. Youhad the solar shingles, which nobody had.
Phil Rosenwaldmonica, Well, thanks,can I tell you something? They
(05:27):
crapped out after three years? Ohthat's not good. No, so i'd
like I asked you here today fora refund. You'll get a full refund.
Let me get my AMEX out.But let me ask you you got
a very high limit will of courseit was. Anytime you go into a
new technology, you're taking a riskthat that might happen. So let me
(05:48):
ask you, as an expert.I'm assuming these things have gotten way better
and more efficient. What I washoping for, and clearly i'm learning now
did not happen. There's a morphouspanels, which are different than polycrystalline panels,
the kind that I have on myroof. There is that what I
had? Yeah? Yeah, youhad. All the shingles have what are
(06:08):
called amorphous panels, like a littlepocket calculator of those things. Yes,
the polychrystal of the kind you seemost of in the solar farms, and
so those, as it turns out, don't have the life we had hoped
for. The polycrystaline lasts a longtime. I was rooting for you,
and I guess it didn't work out. It's okay. But the other thing
I didn't know was if unless youwash them all the time they're covered,
they get covered in soot and dirtand smog and whatever else, and they're
(06:30):
not gonna work. I'm up therein the roof a lot with Rochelle cheering
me on going get near the edge? Did you play closer? Now go
the other way a little further,a little further and picture back up a
bit. Ah. She has agood insurance policy. Yeah, my polycrystalline
panels from the eighties, I don'thave those anymore because I've built a new
(06:53):
home. But those from nineteen eightynine are still working in somebody else's house.
I've talked to them occasionally. You'velost some of their wadded, but
they haven't gone crap on you,okay, so what is the future of
that. The future of polycrystalline isvery good because the old ones that would
make even the polycrystalline there would makethem more by hand with some machines involved.
(07:14):
Now they're all robotics, so allof the different connections are much better.
I had about four or five panelsout of about one hundred that got
very poor wattage for after a whilebecause of the connections. They were done
by a person. Now that they'redone by robotics, that doesn't happen.
You could see in the back ofthe little burn marks. Burn marks are
a result of electrical resistance, andthat means that you're not getting the watage
(07:38):
you shoot out of the panels.But they replaced them. The five that
were defective, okay, they stoodby. There's a warranty. If you
lose more than I think it's tenpercent of your wattage in a decade,
new panels, they send them toyou. If you lose fifteen percent in
twenty years, they send them toyou, and after that you're on your
own. So now is the timeto redo my roof? Is that right?
Yes? Now it's good, quitereal? And is there a brand
(08:00):
you like, I don't know,is there some someone we can plug not
in the shingle department. I gotto look into that. I mean,
I, of course do have shingles, as you know, but not that
kind. There's a shot for thatnow, yeah, penicillin. Let's can
we talk at a little bit aboutthe roots of You're still on the shingles.
Okay, go back to shingles.Go ahead, the roots of your
environmentalism, because, uh, Iremember when Jeff Goldbloom, when you got
(08:24):
your Lifetime Achievement word at the EMMAAwards, and I was working with your
friend Jeff, who had many greatthings to say about you. He said
there were things like, I lovethis guy so much. We've gone to
all of each other's weddings, hesaid. He said, I don't know
if he was cheap first or anenvironmentalist first. True, by the way,
all true. So well, Iwant to ask your Now, I
(08:46):
know your father because you are theoriginal NEPO baby in Hollywood. That's correct,
your father, you said. Ithink you said something along the lines
of he was cheap around the housewith I didn't want to, didn't you
he didn't you excuse me? Hedid not use the word environmentalists. But
he was one. We turned offthe lights, turn off the water,
save strings, saved tinfoil, youknow, watched every gallon of gas,
(09:09):
every everything. He was the sonof Irish immigrants. He lived through the
Great Depression, so we had thatwhole, that ethic and that way of
thinking. So he gave that tome. The other great gift he gave
he said, Eddie, don't justtalk about stuff. Because I was complaining
about the smog to him in nineteenseventy before he passed. He said,
I know I'm against smog too,that's what you're against. But what are
you four? What are you doingto make a difference, you know,
(09:33):
try to build the electric car.Yeah, let's have a hand for that.
Turn a little this way. Becausethese people can't they can't see you.
I'm very I don't even though thereare people over there. I'm very
sorry. Oh my god. Yeah, I want difficult Hollywood people. They
paid, they paid a lot ofmoney to see Ed Begley and and Ed
you welcome. Can we go fromthe top again for the yes for your
(09:54):
uh four. To prepare for this, I actually spent all morning watching season
one of sant Elsewhere and it struckme that your life was changed. And
by the way it holds up sowell. And it's on Hulu streaming for
free, so watch very kind.It is a good show. I've seen
a couple of them lately. Ohgreat, I can't watch a hospital show.
Even that show has ties to yourenvironmentalism? And am I believe?
(10:16):
Because am I right in that?Blythe Danner told me a story when she
was honored a few years ago thatearly in this organization, wasn't blythe sort
of part of the sort of initialenvironmental sort of definitely was. She moved
big on recycling in Santa Monica,where she and Bruce Palchow lived, and
their kids of Jake and Gwyneth werebig into it, and she was a
(10:39):
dedicated environmentalist for years. So yougot to give her her credit. She
was trying to influence Bruce on everyshow that he did, and so she
was quite successful. The other thingI talked about the positive influence, which
was my dad that started me innineteen seventy. The other one was being
in Boy Scouts. There was aboy Scout and I saw nature up close
and personal. But the negative wasas compelling as an I lived in smoggi
(11:01):
LA. So you couldn't run fromhere to that door where we came in
without wheezing like this, like anasthmatic. And I'm not an asthmatic,
nor was I ever back then.I've just you know, but I had
trouble breathing. And now we gotto remember our successes sometimes too. We
have four times the cars in LAfor nineteen seventy millions more people, but
only a fraction of this smog.We all did that together, give ourselves
(11:24):
a hand with catalytic converted on cars, with cleaner power plants, with all
the stuff that we did at yourhouse, in my house, and Bruce
Paltrow and Blyth Danner did it allmade a difference. Now, having said
that, there's still people near thesefulfillment centers and other the ports of Long
Beach and Los Angeles are breathing verydirty air. We got to clean that
part up for them because locally,for them, it's the air gent.
(11:46):
Yeah, a big hand for that. But all over the world, all
over the world, because it's allinterconnected. It's the sky doesn't stop at
the border. It sure doesn't,so we need to it needs to be
a worldwide Ever, do you worrysometimes that the other countries that are not
rolling along with us are canceling outwhat we do. I worry about that,
(12:09):
but I don't get hung up onthat. I'm still going to do
it. You know, back then, when I start doing it, people
would say, what difference does itmake you? This make you one guy
driving your little electric car in nineteenseventy you're recycling? Who cares? Nobody
else is why you're bothering? Well, bit by bit you make a difference.
That's right, and you can ifwe lead by example and we export
some of these good technology that weproved makes sense and dollars and cents really
(12:31):
makes financial sense to the people inIndia and in China. If we can
sell them on that, in goodAmerican technology that does that, we'll win
them over to have more solar andwind than all of it. But we
got to do what we can dofirst, and just for office, yes,
to see wouldn't it be great?No more actors in the White House?
Yeah? But you're you're smart.You can Did you ever consider it?
(12:54):
Not? Really? I would votefor you, you would, Okay,
I'm going to run then, PhilRosenld behind me. I can do
it. Listen what I learned inshow business. I'm sure you've learned this
too. You're not going to getthe whole audience, but you may as
well keep yours exactly. Make ashow that you're going to love. Everybody
loves Raymond. You love the showyourself. I love the show. You
(13:15):
make a show that people love thatyou love yourself, and the whole country
and the whole world's gonna love it. The best advice I ever got was
do the show you want to dobecause in the end they're going to cancel
you anyway exactly. And by theway, yeah, that's so true.
And we had Pam Adlin on recently, and you've repeated that to so many
other show winners that that's become sortof like shared wisdom. But a lot
(13:37):
of people, when they make ashow or do anything in life, they
think, if I can just ifI just take all their notes, if
I just do what they want meto do, then I'll get on and
then I can do it. Yeah, how that never works, never,
never, ever, because you've sulliedyour original idea right to the point where
it stinks, and then they don'tput it on exactly, and they're not
going to say, Oh, Iguess it was my note that made it
(13:58):
bad. Exactly right. Make ashow you want to see, Make a
movie you want to see yourself.Summer Mocktail smoothies are here for a limited
time at Tropical Smoothie Cafe. MocktailHour on the pool deck is a sip
(14:20):
away. Try the fan favorite islandPunch, mango berry Cosmo or watermelon mojito
smoothies today. Can you get mea few extra towels on the pool deck
while you're here. You're gonna needone with the watermelon mochitles or one bite
of the Tropical bowls from the TropicalSmoothie Cafe and you'll instantly feel like you're
celebrating. Cabana side Tropical Smoothie Cafesfor a pineapple, mango and watermelon swawe
(14:46):
all summer long. Grab a refreshingisland punch, mango berry Cosmo and watermelon
Mohito mocktail smoothie and meet us poolside. Enjoy sunshine by the spoonful with
the Asai bowl from the Tropical SmoothieCafe. We love Tropical Smoothie Cafe,
so visit one of Tropical Smoothie cafesfourteen hundred plus locations, order online or
(15:09):
through their app. Let's get backon the bike to hear ed Begley Junior
tell phill and David more about whatit's been like being Hollywood's own mister Green.
You work more than anyone I know, So how do you? How
(15:30):
do you work that? Like?I know, I know it wasn't I
know it wasn't always easy to bemister Green. In fact, did your
agents tell you, hey, knockit off with that stuff? Because people
in the nineties. I had abath decade in the nineties where I didn't
work much. Not I was neveron a blacklist. I'm sure I was
(15:50):
not on a what I mean list? Yes, right, but I was.
I gave people the creeps. Ithought I was gonna come up with
them and go, how did you? How dare you take the limo to
this event? You know, whenI had ridden my bike or something.
But I'm not You were never judgmentyou know me, I was never judgmental.
This is what I do. Ifyou want to do it yourself,
I'll show you what I did.And that's how it started. There wasn't
(16:11):
like a There wasn't like a momenton a film set where you said,
I can't stand the waist anymore,you must all change. No, never
did that, but from the otherside, people literally thought I was gonna
like shut down the production. Itwas. There was a movie called Pagemaster
with Macaulay Culkin. I played thedad. We had the scene coming up.
Bron'm sours to drive a just backdown a driveway in our family station
(16:33):
wagon. And I show up thatday to do the scene and I could
see people with headsets looking at meand going, yeah, he's here now,
uh huh. No, nobody's talkedto him yet. Oh my god,
I'm getting fired. And finally somebodycomes to ed, sit down.
We need to talk for a second, I said, Am I being let
go? I said no, no, not at all. But we don't
want any trouble at us. Idon't want any trouble either. What's the
problem is, we've got a scenetonight. The scene. Yeah, I
(16:56):
saw the call sheet. I knowthe script, the driveway and the thing.
We can just roll it down,I swear to God. And we've
looked. We looked everywhere in America. There is no such thing as an
electric station wagon. It doesn't exist, and it's truly. There was no
electric station wagon then or now unlesssomebody converted one. They couldn't find an
(17:17):
electric station wagon. They thought Iwas going to storm off the set,
like, how dare you have meback down my gravity in a regular gasoline
car. You've never been militant,You've always been nice about it. Where
did they get this idea that youwere gonna be this? I don't know.
It happened another time too, thesame thing, the headsets and people
that ice here. Now, whatis it already? I find I said
(17:40):
I'd learned. They said we'll havethe recycling bins out by noon. I'm
sorry somebody forgot them. They thoughtI was going to storm off because they
didn't have recycling bins. I wantthem to have the bins, don't get
me wrong, and I'd love itif they had an electric car for me
in a show, But I'm notgonna I'm not gonna get fired over it.
Do you think it was the latenight shows that maybe made Oaks and
you became like that became your identity. The media created a monster. I
(18:04):
think that might be it. TheSimpsons did a wonderful episode on the screen.
It was very very funny. Idrive a little go cart, this
car that's powered by my own senseof self satisfaction. Very good stuff.
It's funny because it's true. That'sa good joke. Though it's a good
joke, come on. Things goteasier after that. But before that,
(18:25):
I worked six weeks for Brian Grazerand Ron Howard on a movie called Greedy,
and I worked two weeks on amovie called Batman Forever. Joel Schumacher
gave me that job. And thatwas the sum total of the nineties.
I worked television. I could goto Canada and do a movie, or
New Zealand or Australia do movie.But I was not in any studio movies
(18:47):
in the nineties at all. Again, not a blacklist, but it just
I freaked people out. Wow,and did it go the other way ever
where that you're on the set,I'm sure you're gonna you know, because
you're here for doing this, thisand this, because you you made a
good impression. Yeah, I think. Let me be clear, Christopher Guest
bailed me out of movie jail,no question, with best in show than
(19:11):
a mighty wind in all those movies. He literally like signed for my things
and had electric vehicle waiting at moviejail. I'm joking, of course,
but he you know, he putme in that movie. And then somehow
I was okay again. But itwas it was a long dry period there.
But again, don't throw any benefitsfrom me then or now. I
was fine. I always, youknow, worked in television, and I
(19:33):
also worked. Somehow television was different. I don't know why, but I
worked. You know, I workedenough to get by for sure, and
I had very low bills because Igrew my food and I made my own
electricity. So I was fine.And now here's a taste of Phil and
David speaking at the twenty twenty twoEMMA Impact Summit about sustainable and delicious food
(19:56):
with the legendary chef Wolfgang Puck.Yes, Wolfgang, A question where the
amazummit. So in addition to howwe're talking a lot about how you have
sustained this amazing career, how doesbeing you know, thinking about being sustainable,
about being environmental? How does thatHow does working towards not just a
great career, but to save theplanet. How has that all worked in
(20:18):
your you know, in America,we have to speak words now found to
table. Yeah, well, Igrew up on a farm. Yeah,
there was no other way. Istill remember as a kid when I got
my first when we got somebody puta can of pineapple and I we opened
the can and tasted the pineapple andsaid, oh my god, this is
(20:40):
amazing. Pineapples in the can.We didn't have can photools said, I
wonder how they got the pineapple inthe can. You know, as a
kid, so we did not haveanything, but we went in the forest
and picked raspberries and blueberries and blackberriesand mushrooms, you name it. And
you know, my mother had achicken coop. We got the eggs in
the springtime. She made fried chickenbecause all the roosters got their head cut
(21:04):
off and fried and the famous onescould lay the eggs. They stayed so
they were spared their life. Andso for me it was always normal.
So when I started spargo, Ifound friends down in Rancho, Santa Fe
who became friends afterwards in the Japanesefamily, the Gino family, and I
(21:26):
used to drive down there every weekto pick up vegetables, to pick up
strawberries and every sing and I stillremember Sidney Poitier. One time I had
this pile of strawberries. And helooked at it and said, Wolf,
what did you do to these strawberries? And I said, what do you
mean, nothing, We just pickedthem up this morning at the farm and
he I said, taste it,and I said, oh my god,
(21:47):
I never tasted strawberries like that.Wow. And it's true at that time
there was no farmer's market in LosAngeles. Now you have them all over
and I said, Harry Sperrys becamemore famous than anybody with their strawberr there
is, but at that time therewas nothing. So the sun Frank from
the son of the owners of theranch. He drove up on Sunday and
(22:08):
he was really excited to see somemovie stars and he walked behind and was
making pizzas. And I always said, why you don't open a little pizza
stand next to your farm stand downthere? So it was really very special
and to me that was always important, and still it's today to really support
the farmers out there because I grewup on a farm. And when you
(22:29):
look at today, just like inmany other businesses, all these big factories,
farms are taking over where they plantthousands of acres of one crop,
which is really not good for thesoil. You know, they planted,
they're in in the out, andthey had so much artificial stuff in it,
which is not good. And soI think to really support small farmers.
(22:51):
That was always for me a wayto go. You know. I
was always really trying to help themalong. And I said, I don't
want to have somebody who is sittingin an office somewhere taking orders from a
restaurant and then sending them out makethe money. I want the farmers to
make the money. And I stillremember the cheat on farm. We got
this beautiful white corn, and Itook my mother there and I said,
(23:17):
you have to taste the corn.She said, you eat corn raw like
that. I said, this isso good, so sweet. So she
tasted it and says, oh mygod, this is amazing. So I
gave you some seeds to take itback to Austria, because we had corn
in Austria, but only for theanimals. They fed the cows and whatever
are we had. So she tookit back and grew corn there, and
then the neighbors grew white corn.And then all of a sudden, they
(23:41):
are tiny little village with ten houses, everybody was having white corn and some
steamed it, some grilleded, andsome ate it raw. So it was
amazing. In twenty twenty three,Phil and David were thrilled to welcome Phil's
friend, the legendary actress and activistJane Fonda, to lunch. Here's some
of the environmental talk from that farchanging two episode conversation with Jane Fonda,
(24:02):
an EMMA Lifetime Achievement Award honoree.Yes, we have the problem of democracy
being taken away. We have aRoe V. Wade being taken taken away.
We don't you think now they've gonetoo far? And then there's in
Kansas. Yeah, no, it'sit's really is that what it takes good
people standing up is what it takesclimate change. I'm going to get there.
(24:30):
It's like, oh yeah, soyeah, there's we got a lot
of problems, like people, there'sa whole lot of people who don't like
democracy right and shocked how unpopular democracyis in a democracy over What do you
think that is that it's trending aroundthe world. I don't know how to
articulate it, but I think thatit's connected to what's happening to the planet.
(24:56):
You know, it's like everything hasa sort of a life cycle after.
I mean, the second law ofthermodynamics is entropy. Everything decays and
declines, and I think it's timethat we're declining as human beings that were
(25:18):
devolving into riots and killing and civilwars and badness all around. We've been
harming the planet and knew it sincethe late nineteen seventies. We knew it
because the scientists who worked for Exxonand Chevron told the executives, what you're
(25:41):
doing is going to cause mass destructionof farmlands, droughts, fires, millions
of people wandering the earth trying tofind a safe place. That we were
warned. They knew when they lied. Okay, had we not been lied
to and we had fessed up towhat was happening, then that was like
(26:02):
forty fifty years ago. We couldhave gradually done something about it. But
because they lied, they being theoil companies. I can't believe that the
head of an oil company was oursecretary of state. I mean, that
just is so sick anyway, Sonow we it's a crisis because if the
(26:25):
world heats beyond a certain point,then ecosystems that we depend on for our
life begin to collapse, most particularlyWhat I's on my mind is the ocean.
We get seventy percent of our oxygenfrom the ocean. If the ocean
dies and it's on its way todying, and forests are being cut down
because they provide the rest of theoxygen, what are we going to do.
(26:48):
We're not going to do. Imean one hundred and one degrees in
the water off Miami and say,look what just happened in Maui. Look
what happened in twenty nineteen in Australia. I mean, it's here, we
know it. We can see itall around us, and birds falling dead
out of the sky and so forth. And unless we can fix this quickly,
(27:11):
the rest doesn't matter. I mean, there's already scientific papers now being
written called the near term societal collapse, And how do we prepare her?
You know? And it's like peopleare going, it's Greta's right. It's
like she knew because she's a sciencenerd with this incredible focused mind, because
she's on the spectrum that what thescience was saying was right. But she
(27:36):
didn't. On the other hand,she didn't believe it because if it was
true, nobody would be living theway we're living. I mean, nobody
would be going around business as usual, and she had a nervous breakdown and
she didn't speak or eat for ayear virtually. Her father thinks it stunted
her growth. You know, it'slike, that's why I decided to go
to Washington and get arrested because ofGreta, right, and because you know,
(27:59):
I turned eighty two, and Ifigured people were going to say,
well, God, if she cando it, then maybe I can,
you know what I mean. So, and now this is four year,
three years, four years later,and we still haven't done what we need
to do. And we're living inan oil producing state, California. It's
one of the big oil producing states. And it's been really hard to fight
(28:23):
here. It's the bedrock of oureconomy, well in the world, but
in California in particular. And letme just tell you what's happened. I
want the listeners to know this becauseit's just terrible. We've fought for a
long time to separate oil wells fromcommunities. Two point seven million Californians live
(28:45):
within a kilometer of an oil well, and the doc scientists said that that's
not safe. No, it makesyou say cancer, Yeah, I mean
I have. I've made friends witha young girl who lives in Downey.
She's twenty two now. When shewas nine, she started getting nosebleeds.
Her name is Nollelli Cobo. Shewon the big prize, the Goldman Environmental
(29:07):
Prize, because she started to organizethe community at nine to shut down an
oil well that went in right acrossthe street from her. Her nosebleeds were
so bad she had to sleep sittingup so she wouldn't drown in her own
blood, and everyone in her communitystarted getting sick. Now she's at twenty.
She had a hysterectomy. She hadcancer of a reproduction, but she
succeeded in closing down the oil well. Two point seven million people live under
(29:30):
conditions that are totally not healthy.We could not get until last year anything
done about it. And last yearGovernor knew Some signed bill to create a
thirty two hundred foot setback. It'sthe biggest setback in the country. It's
a kilometer and while it's still notwholly safe, it's safer. Science says
(29:51):
that's that's what should happen. Yay. A lot of celebrating of this is
great. The frontline community so happy. A few weeks later, the oil
companies start mounting a campaign to geta referendum on the ballot next year in
twenty twenty four to overturn it,and they paid people to collect signatures,
and they the people collecting the signaturestold the people sign this because if you
(30:14):
don't sign it and that other billpasses, people are going to start getting
sick in these communities. It's theopposite of the truth. They said.
Gas prices are going to go upbecause of the opposite of the truth.
They spent twenty million dollars getting thesignatures. They got them. It's on
the ballot. The ballots are soyou don't want this to pass because you
(30:36):
want people to be protected, butif you vote no, then it passes.
It's very confusing the way our referendumsystems in California are drawn up.
So apparently they're going to spend twohundred million dollars to get this passed.
I don't know if you've already seenads up on television about how we absolutely
need our oil here or these horriblethings are going to happen. They're so
(30:57):
well done there and they're totally false. So we have to mount an enormous
campaign. We have to try toraise two hundred million dollars to defeat this
because if they win in a statelike California, they're gonna this is gonna
go national. And it's not justaround the setbacks. It's also fast food
(31:21):
workers. They got a bill passthat increases their wages and benefits and stuff,
and the food industry is trying tooverthrow that. They have a ballot
on the measure on the ballot aswell. You only realize how entrenched the
interests are when you find when youhave a governor Newsom, or when you
have like Al Gore was vice president, like how do we not how do
we not made more progress? Youknow Cherry Brown where people who know something,
(31:45):
Cherry Brown would not move a littlefinger against oil. He would not
do it. He was all thesustainability, so the windmills and all of
that, yeah, but not stoppingfossil fuels. And you know, for
a long time, when I wentin twenty nineteen with fire Drill Friday's to
DC, big green organizations at thattime weren't talking about we have to stop
(32:08):
drilling for fossil fuels. And that'swhat we did. That was the big
thing that fought fire Real Friday didis we put the issue of fossil fuels
on the map. It's like there'stwo blades of scissors and you need both
to cut something. You need thewindmills and the solar panels, hydraulic and
everything, but you need You can'tkeep drilling. If you could have all
(32:30):
the windmills in the world, butif you keep drilling, we're not going
to solve the problem. And ouremissions have gone up, not down,
since we've known that we have tostop fossil fuel drilling. These are not
I know that people might hear thisand think, oh, this is lefty
politics. It's not. It's human. It's just it's humanistic. It's not
(32:52):
political. It's just for the peoplethat live in these communities. Yes,
it's there that people of color thedigit. This is because I'm eating a
deal pickle in my throat. Justby the way. I find this so
interesting. I'm so I'm so honoredto be around Jane Fonder that I haven't
(33:15):
eaten. This is the first timeI've never not had my meal. I'm
going to save that for when we'realone. It's because you're smarter than me,
and you don't want to have amouthful when you're talking. That's all
right, No, no, butyou're you're teaching us a mouthful. That's
right. I'm learning anyway. It'swhat I'm going to be doing for the
next year and a half. I'mnot going to even if the strike ends,
(33:35):
I'm not working because this this isa big deal. This is all
hands on deck. We cannot allowCan you give us a link or what's
the best thing people can do tojoin you in this effort? There's a
website? Oh god, Debbie,can you find it? Well, we'll
wink it when we get to thereal we'll put it in the episode and
(33:57):
we'll put that in our notes.Go to the we can go to the
website. By the way, thebill that you're talking about, that Newsome
wants is just for the setback.They're not even saying they can't drill,
are they They can't drill within thirtytwo hundred feet of a community? So
they still could drill, just notyes, unfortunately it's just within thirty two
(34:19):
hundred feet. So but why wouldthey fight that. They should be happy
they are allowed to keep in keepdoing what they're doing, which they shouldn't
even be doing trying to stop thattoo. But this is the most important
thing because there's so many people toand seven point seven million people and they're
poor and they're working people. AndI've visited these communities and it's just I
(34:39):
mean literally, wake up in thebed and you look out and there's an
oil well right there, I meandown in Wilmington. All these playing fields
outside of schools with oil wells allwhere I mean it's it's and the old
oil wells that are within thirty twohundred feet will continue right and even when
(35:00):
they become done like they they're allused up and they're supposed to be capped
off and made safe, they don'tdo it, and so we tax players
have to end up paying for it. I mean, there's an there's a
villain in this story and it's calledoil. It's really bad. When we
interviewed at Begley Junior at the EMMASummit this year, it was one of
(35:22):
the most powerful moments to me,was you know, we had ed's amazing
and conversation was wonderful, and thenwe went to questions from the audience.
In a young I think it wasa young black man who lives in like
El Segundo or something said, thisis fantastic what you're doing here, but
you get an hour outside of here, you will not believe how toxic the
world is. You know, thethese threats, these environmental threats. We
(35:45):
need to address it. Not justhere in you know, West Hollywood,
we need to look everywhere. Let'slet's let's and I think that that's turns
out to be true. That's exactlywhat I'm talking about has nothing to do
with politics. It has to dowith people's lives. I'm protecting the people
who have been already hurt the most. So how about if we propose ed
(36:08):
Begley Junior being the next president ofthe United States. Phil and David both
(36:30):
know and love longtime EMMA board memberWendy Malick, who actually played Phil's wife
in the movie Jutopia. Here's partof their lunch with this great and green
actress, with a guest question fromher close friend, Emma's CEO, Debbie
Levin. I got to know Wendyabout I think like fifteen years ago,
when thanks to Justin Timberlake, Igot to work on something called the m
(36:52):
Awards. And here's a special messagefrom Debbie Levin, who is the Queen
mother. I think that's what thetitle of EMMA. Empress Wendy, My
Wendy. It's Debbie, Debbie levenEnvironmental Media Association, And I'm so excited
that you're here doing this podcast withthe guys. So you have done so
(37:16):
much as an EMMA board member overthe last twenty three years that you have
sat on our board, and obviouslyeveryone adores you. You're such a huge
asset to the organization. But thisis my question, how has EMMA made
a difference in your life. Iactually joined EMMA shortly before Debbie came in
(37:37):
and saved the day because it waskind of it was kind of petering out
the energy level and kind of hadlost its mission and she just infused it
with so much energy. And she'sanother person who just has a likeness of
being. And when you're dealing withclimate change and with any huge existential threat,
(37:58):
you really need people who can bringin some joy and some hope,
and she just epitomizes that. Andone of the first things we did together
this was I think twenty years ago. She's been there I think for twenty
but we started with the EMMA Greenseal, and it took us years to
get it off the ground, butnow it's like everywhere, and we're working
with studios and with businesses and awardshows to try to just raise awareness and
(38:22):
get everybody to be more sustainable.And it's really I think it's impacted in
a really positive way. And initiallyI didn't know. A lot of times
you get involved with groups and itall sounds really great, but you wonder,
really, ultimately is this making reallyany difference. And I have to
(38:44):
say that now more and more people. Our whole, our whole sort of
thrust from the beginning has been lecturingpeople doesn't often change their minds occasionally maybe,
but if you can weave these messagesin storytelling, through musical lyrics and
through novels and articles, if youcan help show people the cause and effect
(39:08):
of what we're dealing with here anddo it in an entertaining way, you're
going to go a lot further.Spoonful of sugar, yeah, yeah.
And I remember one of our firstPSAs we did, I think it was
Gwyneth Paltrow maybe, and it wassomething about Mary Oh, thank you.
(39:29):
See we need young people with reallythank you, thank you. Yeah.
And Cameron Diaz and they did onefor us where they were laughing and talking
about driving electric cars and when theywhen they wash their hair, they turned
off the shower just to save water, and it was really fun and light
and all this stuff. And whenwe first were trying to get people to
drive Prius's, Debbie got one firstand I said, well, that is
(39:52):
the ugliest car if everything that lookslike a stub toe. It was just
she said, I promise you it'llbe like that child that you are going
to grow to love the most,who is like the weird kid but actually
is the most wonderful. And Igot my Prius and I ended up loving
it, and it was sort oflike we were trying to make it really
cool to be green. So it'sa different take and it seems kind of
(40:12):
light and airy sometimes, but that'show you open the door. And I
think get people like on board onehundred percent. And I think it was
entirely because of Larry David being ina super rule that helped too. I'm
sorry in appreioce so Larry David drivinga Prius that I bought my first one,
and like a week later I gotasked by al Gore to work on
an environmental event, and I wasso happy to drive up in my mind,
Yeah, and it made you feelgood, It made me food.
(40:32):
And I still have never not hada hybrid, yeah ever since. Yeah,
it's the me too. Yeah.Well now I'm electric. And the
last few weeks have been the mostI've ever had people who were skeptical go
maybe this climate change thing is real, Like as they're sweating on the picket
line, like it really feels like, Yeah, this we may be building
(40:53):
towards a moment where you can't ignoreit anymore. Maybe even I don't know
how much work could possibly you know, if it's actually one hundred. This
is so astonishing to me to thinkthat the ocean is one hundred degrees in
Miami. It's insane. I meanthat's and the Hudson River Valley, my
daughter's at Bard and that beautiful ChristineHudson River Valley was ninety eight degrees.
(41:19):
And when the air quality was horrificbecause of the fires in Canada, I
was in New York that day thatit was the hottest place on the globe.
I had just come down, takena train down, and I got
out of Penn Station and looked acrossEighth Avenue. I couldn't see the other
side of Eighth Avenue and it wasacrid orange, like it is here after
a really bad fire. It wasastonishing. It was just like, wow,
(41:42):
So there's no place to run andthere's no place to hide, So
you got to get your shit together, people. We got to really yeah.
I was just in Paris, whereit was relatively nice and temperate,
and then I said the sentence Inever thought i'd say to my wife,
I'm so glad we're not in Italy, and I would to spend my whole
life in Italy, but I didn'twant to be there. Now I know,
I know, I know. Andfinally, Phil and David were thrilled
(42:07):
to talk music and environmentalism with atwo time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer
who's long been on the front linesof this cause, Graham Nash. The
second track on the on the recordright after Right Now, is called a
Better Life, Great song. Itwas written by me and my friend George
Merrill, who is a great songwriter. You know, I had number one
(42:28):
records with Whitney Houston. You know, I want to dance with somebody.
I think that she did. Yeah, so George and I wrote this pretty
little song that is kind of likeit's almost like teacher children, you know,
fifty years later, you know,we've got to make We've got to
leave this place a better place forour children. I mean, you know,
it doesn't seem as if we're goingthat way right now, but eventually
(42:52):
we've got to realize that we are. We are going to leave this place
at some point, and we needto leave it better than we have found
it. Which I love the optimumof that even as an idea, because
I've never felt we're going to leavethis world better. But maybe I pray
I'm wrong. We could, Yeah, we could be. Maybe science will
(43:15):
will save us once again, becausethe tooth is you know, with all
these people that say, you know, we've got to save the planet,
got to save the planet, they'renot talking about the planet. They want
to save themselves. If every singlehuman being died incidenttly, this planet would
still keep spinning. Another life formwould eventually in a million years developed.
(43:36):
You see what happened in Chernobyl.Have you seen the nature shows that show
how the wildlife just reclaimed Chernobyl thewhole area, But they're checking the DNA
or some of those animals to tellyou they're finding some pretty weird things.
I hear. I'll bet so whata disaster Chernobyl was. You know,
(43:57):
they're all they're all disasters, andyou know it's all okay for people to
say, well, you know weneed eat energy and this we've made the
nuclear power plants a little small earnthat much more safe. There's nothing safe
about nuclear power. No, there'sno radiation exposure that is safe for human
beings. And literally those are lessonsthat I didn't learn. Pizzeger came to
(44:21):
our both of our schools growing up, and we both went on the clear
water like Don McLean and so thatwas early messaging. But I think a
lot of my political opinions early onit came from like barrel of pain and
soft. It really is depending onwhat gets to your heart, because that's
what I think we learned, evendiscussing it with Ed Begley. You really
have to get to the heart toget people to feel. Same. It's
(44:45):
the same way with songwriting, youknow, particularly with myself, I can
only speak from my mind, butI have to feel something first. Yes,
I have to be moved emotionally insome direction, do I, you
know, I need to feel somethingabout it. And when I feel that
I need to speak, then Itry and do as much research as possible
(45:06):
in terms of am I doing thisrider is just the right rhythm and needs
the right words? Maybe go toGoogle and figure out didn't he'd really say
that, No he didn't. Okay, then you just formulate it, you
know. But it's been it's beena lifetime of trying to explain to people
things they may not care to thinkabout it. And in Barrel of Pain
(45:29):
is a perfect example. And whenI used to live in San Francisco and
from my kitchen window on a clearday, I could fare on islands and
then I was checking up on thefall on Islands and I realized that,
you know, in the late fiftiesthey had taken a boatload of nuclear waste
in barrels and throwing them overboard,but unfortunately they didn't sink. So what
(45:54):
they do They shot them full ofholes and then they sank. And then
somebody sent me a picture one soof this anenemy that was like, no,
that's a monster, right, that'slike a horror movie of it.
Yeah, Yeah, anyway, Soyeah, nuclear power. Yeah, and
we still to this day have nowhereto put it to this day. And
(46:16):
coming up next week, Ted Dansondoes Lunch with Phil and David from the
twenty twenty four Emma Impacts On.Until then, Cheers. Naked Lunch is
a podcast by Phil Rosenthal and DavidWilde. Theme song and music by Brad
Paisley, Produced by Will Sterling.Executive produced by Phil Rosenthal, David Wilde,
and our consulting journalist is Pamela Chalon. If you enjoyed the show,
(46:37):
share it with a friend, Butif you can't take my word for it,
take Phil's and don't forget to leavea good rating and review. We
like five stars. You know,thanks for listening to Naked Lunch, a
Lucky Bastard's production.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!