Jon Cryer talks his one regret for Lex Luthor and new podcast

Jon Cryer is our guest for the latest episode of KJ Today Celebrity Interviews! Jon is known for his iconic roles in Pretty in Pink and Two and a Half Men. But today, we explored something entirely different: his new podcast, The Man Who Calculated Death and talked the end of the Arrowverse including his ONE regret for Lex Luther! (Go directly to 10:32 for his Lex comments)

Jon shares the incredible journey of his friend Suzanne Rico, who uncovered her grandfather's shocking past as a scientist for Hitler during World War II. This episode is not just about history; it's about family, legacy, and the lengths we go to understand our roots. Suzanne's quest to finish her mother's memoir leads her to unravel an 80-year-old mystery that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

Here are some highlights from our conversation: The unexpected twists and turns in Suzanne's family history.

The challenges of producing a narrative podcast that spans continents and decades.

Jon’s reflections on his own ancestry and the surprising stories that emerged.

Whether you're a history buff, a true crime enthusiast, or just someone who loves a good story, this episode is for you! Don't miss out on this captivating discussion.

Tune in now to hear Jon Cryer’s insights and the remarkable tale of The Man Who Calculated Death.

As always, thank you for your support, and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on this episode!

[00:03:20] Working on a memoir and The Man Who Calculated Death podcast

[00:10:32] Jon's One Regret for Lex Luthor in the Arrowverse.

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Episode Transcript

(00:10):
You know what? It was. It was really nice. We
watched a lot of football. My Packers won. Ate a
All right. Well, you can't beat that. I'm still trying to get the Linda Blair
He hasn't responded to me yet, but I'm going to send her an email right now again.

(00:32):
I appreciate that. She should be talking to me.
I know. It should be crazy. Well, everybody should be talking to you. Who wouldn't want
I'm talking to you right now. I know. I need to get you on the show
sometime. You have this crazy little life we never get to talk about.
This John has got me going because he's doing producing podcast

(00:52):
like this one. And I just was talking to
him, but I used to. My manager was Jackie Kahane for Elvis
Presley's Soul Opening Act. And I'm going to
do a podcast on him because John says to do podcasts
Yes, you totally should. All right. Well,
you know, I'm a podcast producer, so you could just do

(01:17):
Oh, wow. I know that's a good business. Do you do
Okay, so you're like John, he does the same thing. That's kind of
I probably cost a lot less than John. All
right, we'll talk. The quality is just as good. I'm sure. Hang on. Okay. Hey,

(01:54):
Jamie, John. Well, hello, John Cryer. Hey, how
are you? I am so excited to welcome
you to the KJ Today show for the first time. I think we've talked
over the years because I've been a radio forever. But this
is the first time we've had you on our little positive vibe

(02:15):
show here. So thanks for being here, John. Oh, so
glad to be a part of it. Well, I tell you what,
I mean, obviously, there's a lot of people that are
listening and excited and love you from Pretty in Pink and
Two and a Half Men. But the conversation that we have been
having today about this new podcast, it's

(02:38):
just, honestly, it's been brilliant and
exciting. And I don't want to say too much more. I want to hear from
you, your perspective when you first started
you know, hearing this story from your friend, Suzanne,
about the man who calculated death being her

(02:58):
Yes. Well, you know, you forget that history
is all around us and it's, you know, all the people around us
have, are a part of history. You know, we just, we don't always see
it that way. And, and the crazy thing was that I was, this, this
whole thing came about because I was at a dinner party. And
one of my wife's oldest friends, who's named Suzanne Rico, she's

(03:21):
an anchorwoman out here on KCBS. You know,
all-American girl, you know, beautiful blonde
lady. And she was talking,
I sort of blithely mentioned that I was a huge fan of the space race, and
I loved the history of it. And she said, oh, my grandfather worked on
the space program. And I said, oh, that's so cool, you know. She said,

(03:42):
yeah, yeah, before that he worked for Hitler. But anyway, she just
went on talking about that. I
was like, wait, I'm sorry, you're going to have to rewind and
tell me about the working for Hitler part. And
it turns out she had been on this kind of crazy
but gut wrenching adventure recently because her mother

(04:04):
had passed away a few years before that. And on her deathbed, her
mother admitted that she had been working on a memoir. She'd been writing
a memoir, but that she wouldn't be able to finish it because she was dying. And she asked
Suzanne to finish it for her, which
is just a crazy thing to ask of somebody. I mean, finishing her
memoir. I mean, I don't even know where you start from that. And Suzanne certainly didn't.

(04:28):
So she had to go through her family history
in a way that she had never really interrogated before. And
so one of the first moments of the podcast is her going
through her mother's things and finding a thing called the Knight's Cross,
which is actually the highest medal that
Hitler awarded. And she found out that her grandfather was

(04:51):
awarded the Knight's Cross. And suddenly she
realized, oh, wow, I've got to go a lot deeper into this story than
I thought. And so she
It turns out her grandfather was a guy named Robert Lutzer, who was one of
Hitler's most important scientists. Hitler had had
such horrifying losses in the

(05:13):
Battle of Britain and in the Russian front
that he was trying to find a whole new kind of warfare, which was robot war.
And so Wernher von Braun, a very
famous rocket scientist, And and Robert Lutzer were
tasked with creating new wonder weapons for Hitler, and
they succeeded. They ended up succeeding too late in the war. But

(05:38):
but, you know, but but they were a huge part of Hitler's war effort.
And so Suzanne did not realize that her
father was such a big part of history. And
yeah, and that her mother had always been horribly traumatized by
the death of her mother, Suzanne's grandmother, who died mysteriously in
a bombing. And Suzanne felt like

(06:01):
the only way to really honor her mother and finish her mother's memoir truly was
to solve the mystery of who killed her
grandmother and why. And to
her credit, and this is an amazing thing, when we started working on
the podcast, she hadn't solved the mystery, but she did it.
She actually, through shoe leather and just

(06:24):
enormous man hours, managed to
solve this 80-year-old mystery.
It was just this incredible journey for Suzanne. This is
not the kind of thing I generally produce. I generally
make comedies and stuff. That's not

(06:44):
what I'm known for. But
seeing a friend go through this, and you know, you're a podcast producer.
Doing a narrative podcast with when she had,
I mean, she traveled to Europe. She traveled all
over the United States. She was interviewing military historians
and interviewing family members, interviewing concentration camp

(07:07):
survivors. She was interviewing, just doing this incredible
breadth of research, but just Just
the hours and hours of audio she had to go through. I
mean, hundreds of hours. Wow. It
was just this incredibly daunting, challenging thing. And
she has made a really beautiful, beautiful story

(07:29):
of a family. And this is just the first half of it, by the way.
This is just how they survived World War Two. Then they
were illegally smuggled to the United States. to work on
the space program. And so we're going to do the second season is going to
be the story of Operation Paperclip and how her family got

(07:51):
This is crazy. How many times? I mean, like you
said, you've worked in comedy. I mean, you've had this big, long career. How
many times did you say to Suzanne or yourself,
Yes. Yes. Well, she has. Yeah, she has those moments all through
the podcast. Because the story takes so many crazy twists

(08:13):
and turns. I
also did a podcast called Lawyers, Guns, and Money, which is about the Iran-Contra scandal,
which is also an insane story of just insane characters.
It's almost a comedy, Iran-Contra, except
that it had global consequences. But

(08:35):
that is the thing about so many of these true stories. There's
stories that you wouldn't necessarily believe if they were fictional. But
again, the amount of introspection that
Suzanne does and if

(08:55):
I found out, recently I had my
ancestry dug into by a TV program and I
said, guys, let me know if there's
dark parts. you know, if there's if there's, you know, I'm sure,
you know, not every not every human in my family is going to be a thing. And
I and I'd really love to know where where everything goes

(09:17):
wrong. And they sent me some things. I mean, there were there was
fascinating things. The turns out
I have a Mayflower ancestor who is an indentured servant,
which is pretty cool, except that he was a
drunk He was the first guy to ever get in

(09:37):
a duel in New England, and
he got in a duel and they both lost because
they shot each other, but neither of them died. But
he was apparently not a great guy and had a lot
of brushes with the law. They had a lot more interesting stories
as well, but that was one of the fun ones that I remember, but not

(10:00):
nearly the history. spanning consequences of
Sure. The Man Who Calculated Death is
the podcast. And real quick, John, I promise Jim
who's listening, because we just hit the end of an era
with the Arrowverse and Superman and Lois finale airing

(10:20):
and a lot of people grieving, but also looking back and reflecting. Can
you share just a quick
Oh, I had a fantastic time on that. The
whole Arrowverse was just one for the nerds. I

(10:43):
loved being a nerd. I loved reveling in
it. We got into the deepest, darkest recesses of
DC lore. It was great. We
just reveled in it. It
was fun because when we ended up shooting this insane crossover

(11:05):
where we had five different shows crossover with
each other. We had Flash and Arrow and all those, and Supergirl
and Batwoman all crossover. And Legends of
Tomorrow, as a matter of fact. And it
was just this huge, ridiculous undertaking. And
we all, I don't know. You

(11:27):
know, we every now and then there were a few days when we'd look around and all of us in
these ridiculous costumes saying these ridiculous things.
And but we were all having a ball, you know,
and I am sorry to see Superman and Lois go as well, because I think that
was just a fantastic new look at
those characters. I think they managed to really crack it by being

(11:48):
by being, you know, faithful to who
Superman is. but also finding a new way to show it.
And that show is really, really solid. And
my biggest regret is that I never was on it. Yes.
Well, thank you, John. I know you got a lot more interviews today. The

(12:09):
Man Who Calculated Death podcast is out. And when season two comes