May 19, 2022 • 18 mins
“This Is Us” Executive Producer Ken Olin sat down with The Creative Coalition CEO Robin Bronk. In the newest episode, Olin shares how and why “This Is Us” tackles important social issues, including the obesity epidemic.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
This is On the Edge, apodcast series from the Creative Coalition featuring conversations
with an edge and chats with personalitiesfrom the world of entertainment. Now here's
your host, Creative Coalition CEO RobinBronk. Hey, Hi, welcome back
on this episode of On the Edge, we have a pretty special guest.
(00:29):
Now you may recall that Ken Ollenwas here a couple of weeks ago telling
us about his backstory how he startedout as an actor Forever a link to
his breakout roles as the tortured familyman Michael Steadman on ABC's late eighties yuppie
drama Thirty Something. He became partof the company of Thespians that have made
(00:52):
the leap behind the camera. Hisstatus as a go to producer, writer,
and director has translated to a listof credits that include alias Brothers and
Sisters, Sleepy Hollow, and NowThis is Us. And what's even more
interesting is Ken, whether he's writing, directing, acting, continues to break
(01:15):
the ceilings on so many issues thatwe care about. Take a listen.
One of the issues that we've takenon is obesity. Obesit is a very
interesting disease. One hundred percent ofeveryone knows somebody with the disease. It's
the only disease where someone says.If someone says I have a weight problem,
(01:36):
what's the first thing you say,No, you don't. You'd never
say that about any other disease.I may have diabetes, Well did you
see a doctor. It's the onlyone. It's sort of like epilepsy a
hundred years ago was treated. Youknow, if you're a better person,
you wouldn't have seizures. And weknow that's absurd. So what we're using
(01:57):
is how do the arts make adifference. Are the arts can to destigmatize
that it's okay? And it's mostlyin that way you mean in a I
mean I use it loosely, butthat's subversive way of like you used,
whether it's a program, whatever,is to introduce the subject and destigmatize it.
Be able to actually introduce it.Yeah. I always felt like when
(02:21):
we did Brothers and Sisters, probablythe thing I was most proud of about
that show because I felt a lotof that show was it felt there were
a lot a lot of cooks inthe kitchen on that show, so somewhat
manufactured, I felt. But theone thing that I thought we really contributed
and was unique was that the relationshipbetween the two gay characters. And probably
(02:44):
because well it's groundbreaking, that wasgroundbreaking. And I think probably because and
when Robbie Bates, when we Robbieand I created the show thing, one
of the things that was important tohim was how to de stick amatize it
by just through non dramatic means,the ordinariness of it. It was just
(03:06):
interesting because we kept and I rememberand it was such a you know,
our characters got married. There wasa whole thing. But because it was
he normalized it. I remember talkingto my mother in law's husband, part
whatever he was at the time,who very conservative guy, and he you
know, he said, look,you know, I could do without the
(03:28):
guy's kissing, but I sure lovethose scenes in the kitchen with the family,
and you go, yep, that'sthe way. And I think with
this it's us it's tricky. Thisyear, I do believe we mentioned that
term, and I guess I thinkwe mentioned the word obesity. But I
think it's interesting because that character,you know, Chrissie's character is beloved.
(03:53):
Well think about this, like I'mthirty something, when Patricia's character had cancer,
you all unwhispered it. M yeah, I think that it's such an
interesting thing with this. I mean, I don't know whether it's an interesting
(04:13):
line that you walk not not youguys, but when you do it,
it's because you want the character tobe to be loved, and therefore in
some ways you're giving approval in someway. Like That's the thing that's very
interesting about this character of Kate isit's given a validated people. It's you
know, put eyes on this.It's saying she's clearly loved. And one
(04:36):
of the things I loved about thepilot was that you god, this brother
and sister, that's such brothers andsisters. I mean they these two,
this brother and sisters, they justlove each other. It's unconditional. It's
not like he's looking at her allthe time. And yet there is another
side in this, which is,you know, real obesity is really unhealthy.
(04:56):
It's also and listen, it's notanti bio positivity rights. And that's
the unspoken that we're being aware anddestigmatizing. Obesity is not antibody positivity.
Obesity is a disease. It isand there is no other disease that we
(05:19):
there's almost no other disease that wewhisper anymore, except for maybe COVID.
It's funny. COVID feels like you'relike you. And it's so interesting because
humans judge those who have obesity.There's so many judgments that are made.
Oh, they must be sloppy,they must make bad decisions, they're not
(05:39):
strategic. We for the most part, don't do that with other diseases.
We don't shame and blame. Andif we could just what we're trying to
do, if we could just throughthe arts create this awareness and again it's
it's treated like an orphan disease,but it's not. It's an epidemic.
It's the biggest epidemic since, youknow, besides the pandemic worldwide. And
(06:04):
if you said to anything, fourout of ten of your viewers are interested
in this, have this, it'dbe like, what is it? So
the approach they take with creators andall that is that here's a subject,
even though it's visual, even thoughit's like, okay, I mean that's
(06:27):
I'm telling you that you can seeit. I go I'll say, well,
you know, according to the lightor whatever, I'm obese. You
know what they thought and then peoplesay, no, you're not. Yeah,
oh no, no, no,you look great? Yeah. Would
would anyone say that about anything elsethat broke my arm? No? You
didn't, you didn't. Yeah,that's really And they don't tell you about
(06:50):
mental illness anymore either. Hey.Right, And if you do say no,
you know I have depression, it'salmost heroic, you know, I'm
opening myself up to you. Yeah, and it's so interesting. So this
is us, you know, isexalted for everything, and you have this
character. Yet would you ever godown that path? In Toby and Kate's
(07:13):
relationship, we have addressed the healthissue to some extent, and this year
I think we're doing it even moreso. I have obesity and it doesn't
mean I make bad decisions and itdoesn't mean I'm irresponsible, And it doesn't
mean yes. And I would thinkthat whether that's been you know, just
(07:34):
overtly stated or implied. But Ithink it's been implied that yes, I
have an issue, I'm dealing withit, but that doesn't completely define who
I am. I still make responsibledecisions, I still have self respect,
I still work on myself, Istill work hard. I don't know that
(07:58):
it's been addressed in ways that wouldmake her like the identified patients or whatever.
Well, no, I mean itdoesn't even happy that. But as
I'm thinking about unless I'm not tellingthe writers how to write, but it
is as I think in my mindabout these various patients that I've talked to
who have big jobs or who wereturned down for big jobs, because it
(08:20):
is the human condition, and weare the only mammals that think that if
you have this disease, you aremaking bad decisions. Why would I trust
you with my legal case? Yeah, and I think it's trickier, I
think because well, I agree withyou. I think part of it has
been that it is yet to bereally recognized and accepted as a condition,
(08:43):
a disease, and that, inthat way is still that perception, a
physical perception, that obesity seems likeit's, oh, that's just a numbers
thing. You're fat and everybody everybodyloves to eat pop but you obviously can't
control yourself. I mean that line, but to where you begin to say,
(09:07):
no, we are going to putforward a character who up until I
don't know, maybe our show,even though there's been heavy people on shows,
certainly Roseanne or whatever, but yeah, they were in that category of
sloppy, so it's identified as asort of socioeconomic thing. Now we're going,
(09:28):
oh, wow, we're putting acharacter on TV who is obviously obese.
I mean, she would certainly saythat, And we want to say
this person is okay, that thisperson is lovable, this person is attractive,
all of those tropes that are associatedwith television stars, television characters.
(09:54):
You know. I think it's abalancing and it's interesting because was like,
wow, this is kind of anew one. Like I think, to
Chrissie's credit, it's courageous to dothat, to just go out and do
some of the things she's done,and on Dan's part to create a character
like that, this is one ofyour central leads in your show who is
(10:18):
probably as heavy as any leading characteron television has been for a long time,
and yet this is a person worthyof love and loving herself. Then
it's that question when you're saying,how do you then go over okay?
But now what's the next step inreally even though showcasing that one? You
(10:43):
know, because and this is wherea creative coalition comes in to circle back
that we know that entertainment influences Ido think though, like, and I
don't know about it that way,but I do think that a person does
have a certain amount of agency.And then there is that heart where you
go, no, actually, thereare certain things that because of your genetic
(11:07):
makeup and your chemistry, the waythat eating a cookie will affect you,
the entire chemistry that kicks in isdifferent. That must be true. I
mean to be like, Okay,there is being twenty pounds overweight, and
there's being two hundred pounds overwhere,and when you start to go, wait,
(11:28):
if you could address it the sameway, how long it took to
really address alcoholism or drug addiction asa disease of Yes, but there's a
chemical thing that happens in your bodythat doesn't happen in everybody's body. Like
to get to that point, andthat's I don't think that we have.
It's just such an interesting thing,you know if like, I don't think
(11:52):
we've approached it that way. Ever, no entertainment has. So we raise
money to give money to artists,and we raised about three hundred and fifty
thousand dollars last year to give tofilmmakers to make four shorts about obesity that
are now on the film festival circuitnow and one film that was made.
It was about a woman who grewup in the South African American woman and
(12:16):
the name of the movie is calledBig Bone because also you never say the
word obesity. There are all theseeuphemisms. And the reason we use our
soapbox for it is because you haveto show how the arts can change the
way the world thinks. And that'swhy the arts are important. I agree,
And it was interesting. I wasin a Starbucks talking to an executive
(12:37):
about a decision maker one of thestreamers about content, and I was talking.
I did my thing. It's thelast shame and blame disease. It's
whispered. And then we were talkingand before he would say the word,
he looked to the right, andhe looked to the left, and he
whispered the word obesity. It's justlike, did you see what you just
did? It's not okay. Weall whisper it well, because it's still
(13:00):
the category of this sort of shamingcriticism. You should be ashamed. You
lost control, is what it is. You just you lost control and you
look bad. And the intellectual threatI personally find so interesting is that it's
not body positivity. It's different.You can be body positive, but you
(13:20):
can also understand the nuances of thisdisease and that does not mean you're not
body positive. That next step thatyou're talking about where it going okay,
what about coming at it this way? Which is which to me is in
some way that's a almost has tobe a holistic approach from the beginning.
Well, even like I was thinkingabout the mother character, Mandy Moore as
(13:43):
a parent, what did I dowrong? And maybe nothing that Mandy Moore
could have done differently would have changedKate's metabolism? What is interesting think about
like how I have a feeling thatthis is And maybe in that way the
show has been very positive in thatit is a topic that has been put
(14:07):
into the zeitgeist because of this character. And again this is why I believe
certainly the popular arts are so influentialtelevision and film, because it puts these
things into the living rooms of massivenumber of people. Who took fifteen twenty
million people, You go, wow, that's an obese character. Yeah,
a character who has obesity. Thenyou begin to, let's say, even
(14:31):
open up the subject matter. Idon't know how long this has been something
that has really been It sounds like, okay, this is interesting. This
is a subject that you got.It takes years, but I mean it's
interesting. You guys going, Okay, here's when we're going to go mental
illness was one. Let's approach obesityand let's open up this subject. It
(14:52):
would seem to me that during thegenesis of this that would be the approach
that one would want to take ifyou were going to do a character who
has obesity and you wanted to go, look at this as the approach we're
going to take. It's not goingto be the familial unconditional love approach as
a way of being positive and assertingthat these characters shouldn't live in the shadows
(15:18):
or be so ashamed. But let'stake the next thing, which is,
you know, like addiction or likemental illness, depression, whatever, these
are subject matters that need to comeout of the stone age and really be
looked at as medical conditionous as diseases. I would think that's the next approach
that I don't know, six yearsago or seven years ago, when Dan
(15:41):
was writing this and it had alot to do with his own family stuff,
he was taking the approach you knowwhat, we got to begin to
talk about this as a disease,because that would be fascinating approach if at
a different times go get this personto an endrowcrinologist. Let's begin to get
a story like your tom about goingout have need problems and the person going,
well, you got to lose weight, that's why you have deep problems.
(16:03):
It's like, no, actually Ihave a tormentiscus is what you find.
But that's a different I think ourshow has a more in the best
sense of the word, more ofa sentimental approach to things. And the
other thing I think r about thisis it's just that fine line also of
where if you're not really going toaddress it in the way you're tormented in
(16:26):
the complex way, you don't wantto do something that's in some way in
a sentimental way excuses it, thatsays, oh, you're a drug out
it you know you gotta go.No, it's a serious disease that needs
to be addressed. It's not sayingyou know, you be body positive,
end of story, We're all good. It's saying you can be body positive
(16:47):
and still recognize and attack this diseasethat you have as you would any disease.
I mean you're going to You're notgoing to just say, oh,
okay, you have cancer. You'regonna go. You gotta deal with the
can. That's a really valid butit's the curt and it's the courage of
dealing. I mean, I knowevery time I go on a diet,
when you announce it, it's allof a sudden you're accountable. Yeah,
(17:11):
and that's yeah, Okay, Ihave the next show that I want you
to run and create called John Batesup. He's an little creative Polish member.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah, oh yeah, we're having
dinner with Rob Yeah. Yeah,that's it's your game. You need to
be part of it. It's great. I mean, it's thoughtful people,
(17:32):
Yeah, making a difference. Andit's I always say, it's great that
people do this. We don't askyou to do things you don't do.
Our writers write, our actors act, our directors direct. And I think
that would be really cool to beThat would be great. Thanks so much,
Ken, And what can I say? You are truly the mastermind at
defining the pop culture touch points forgenerations. All y'all out there and podcast
(17:56):
land. Next time it's New AmsterdamStar Tyler Levine, who will be on
the Edge with us see then ifyou've been listening to On the Edge,
a podcast series from the Creative Coalition, hosted by Creative Coalition CEO Robin Bronk.
For more information on how you canprotect funding for the arts and harness
(18:18):
the power of the arts to promotesocial good, visit us at the Creative
Coalition dot org.
This is On the Edge, apodcast series from the Creative Coalition featuring conversations
with an edge and chats with personalitiesfrom the world of entertainment. Now here's
your host, Creative Coalition CEO RobinBronk. Hey, Hi, welcome back
on this episode of On the Edge, we have a pretty special guest.
(00:29):
Now you may recall that Ken Ollenwas here a couple of weeks ago telling
us about his backstory how he startedout as an actor Forever a link to
his breakout roles as the tortured familyman Michael Steadman on ABC's late eighties yuppie
drama Thirty Something. He became partof the company of Thespians that have made
(00:52):
the leap behind the camera. Hisstatus as a go to producer, writer,
and director has translated to a listof credits that include alias Brothers and
Sisters, Sleepy Hollow, and NowThis is Us. And what's even more
interesting is Ken, whether he's writing, directing, acting, continues to break
(01:15):
the ceilings on so many issues thatwe care about. Take a listen.
One of the issues that we've takenon is obesity. Obesit is a very
interesting disease. One hundred percent ofeveryone knows somebody with the disease. It's
the only disease where someone says.If someone says I have a weight problem,
(01:36):
what's the first thing you say,No, you don't. You'd never
say that about any other disease.I may have diabetes, Well did you
see a doctor. It's the onlyone. It's sort of like epilepsy a
hundred years ago was treated. Youknow, if you're a better person,
you wouldn't have seizures. And weknow that's absurd. So what we're using
(01:57):
is how do the arts make adifference. Are the arts can to destigmatize
that it's okay? And it's mostlyin that way you mean in a I
mean I use it loosely, butthat's subversive way of like you used,
whether it's a program, whatever,is to introduce the subject and destigmatize it.
Be able to actually introduce it.Yeah. I always felt like when
(02:21):
we did Brothers and Sisters, probablythe thing I was most proud of about
that show because I felt a lotof that show was it felt there were
a lot a lot of cooks inthe kitchen on that show, so somewhat
manufactured, I felt. But theone thing that I thought we really contributed
and was unique was that the relationshipbetween the two gay characters. And probably
(02:44):
because well it's groundbreaking, that wasgroundbreaking. And I think probably because and
when Robbie Bates, when we Robbieand I created the show thing, one
of the things that was important tohim was how to de stick amatize it
by just through non dramatic means,the ordinariness of it. It was just
(03:06):
interesting because we kept and I rememberand it was such a you know,
our characters got married. There wasa whole thing. But because it was
he normalized it. I remember talkingto my mother in law's husband, part
whatever he was at the time,who very conservative guy, and he you
know, he said, look,you know, I could do without the
(03:28):
guy's kissing, but I sure lovethose scenes in the kitchen with the family,
and you go, yep, that'sthe way. And I think with
this it's us it's tricky. Thisyear, I do believe we mentioned that
term, and I guess I thinkwe mentioned the word obesity. But I
think it's interesting because that character,you know, Chrissie's character is beloved.
(03:53):
Well think about this, like I'mthirty something, when Patricia's character had cancer,
you all unwhispered it. M yeah, I think that it's such an
interesting thing with this. I mean, I don't know whether it's an interesting
(04:13):
line that you walk not not youguys, but when you do it,
it's because you want the character tobe to be loved, and therefore in
some ways you're giving approval in someway. Like That's the thing that's very
interesting about this character of Kate isit's given a validated people. It's you
know, put eyes on this.It's saying she's clearly loved. And one
(04:36):
of the things I loved about thepilot was that you god, this brother
and sister, that's such brothers andsisters. I mean they these two,
this brother and sisters, they justlove each other. It's unconditional. It's
not like he's looking at her allthe time. And yet there is another
side in this, which is,you know, real obesity is really unhealthy.
(04:56):
It's also and listen, it's notanti bio positivity rights. And that's
the unspoken that we're being aware anddestigmatizing. Obesity is not antibody positivity.
Obesity is a disease. It isand there is no other disease that we
(05:19):
there's almost no other disease that wewhisper anymore, except for maybe COVID.
It's funny. COVID feels like you'relike you. And it's so interesting because
humans judge those who have obesity.There's so many judgments that are made.
Oh, they must be sloppy,they must make bad decisions, they're not
(05:39):
strategic. We for the most part, don't do that with other diseases.
We don't shame and blame. Andif we could just what we're trying to
do, if we could just throughthe arts create this awareness and again it's
it's treated like an orphan disease,but it's not. It's an epidemic.
It's the biggest epidemic since, youknow, besides the pandemic worldwide. And
(06:04):
if you said to anything, fourout of ten of your viewers are interested
in this, have this, it'dbe like, what is it? So
the approach they take with creators andall that is that here's a subject,
even though it's visual, even thoughit's like, okay, I mean that's
(06:27):
I'm telling you that you can seeit. I go I'll say, well,
you know, according to the lightor whatever, I'm obese. You
know what they thought and then peoplesay, no, you're not. Yeah,
oh no, no, no,you look great? Yeah. Would
would anyone say that about anything elsethat broke my arm? No? You
didn't, you didn't. Yeah,that's really And they don't tell you about
(06:50):
mental illness anymore either. Hey.Right, And if you do say no,
you know I have depression, it'salmost heroic, you know, I'm
opening myself up to you. Yeah, and it's so interesting. So this
is us, you know, isexalted for everything, and you have this
character. Yet would you ever godown that path? In Toby and Kate's
(07:13):
relationship, we have addressed the healthissue to some extent, and this year
I think we're doing it even moreso. I have obesity and it doesn't
mean I make bad decisions and itdoesn't mean I'm irresponsible, And it doesn't
mean yes. And I would thinkthat whether that's been you know, just
(07:34):
overtly stated or implied. But Ithink it's been implied that yes, I
have an issue, I'm dealing withit, but that doesn't completely define who
I am. I still make responsibledecisions, I still have self respect,
I still work on myself, Istill work hard. I don't know that
(07:58):
it's been addressed in ways that wouldmake her like the identified patients or whatever.
Well, no, I mean itdoesn't even happy that. But as
I'm thinking about unless I'm not tellingthe writers how to write, but it
is as I think in my mindabout these various patients that I've talked to
who have big jobs or who wereturned down for big jobs, because it
(08:20):
is the human condition, and weare the only mammals that think that if
you have this disease, you aremaking bad decisions. Why would I trust
you with my legal case? Yeah, and I think it's trickier, I
think because well, I agree withyou. I think part of it has
been that it is yet to bereally recognized and accepted as a condition,
(08:43):
a disease, and that, inthat way is still that perception, a
physical perception, that obesity seems likeit's, oh, that's just a numbers
thing. You're fat and everybody everybodyloves to eat pop but you obviously can't
control yourself. I mean that line, but to where you begin to say,
(09:07):
no, we are going to putforward a character who up until I
don't know, maybe our show,even though there's been heavy people on shows,
certainly Roseanne or whatever, but yeah, they were in that category of
sloppy, so it's identified as asort of socioeconomic thing. Now we're going,
(09:28):
oh, wow, we're putting acharacter on TV who is obviously obese.
I mean, she would certainly saythat, And we want to say
this person is okay, that thisperson is lovable, this person is attractive,
all of those tropes that are associatedwith television stars, television characters.
(09:54):
You know. I think it's abalancing and it's interesting because was like,
wow, this is kind of anew one. Like I think, to
Chrissie's credit, it's courageous to dothat, to just go out and do
some of the things she's done,and on Dan's part to create a character
like that, this is one ofyour central leads in your show who is
(10:18):
probably as heavy as any leading characteron television has been for a long time,
and yet this is a person worthyof love and loving herself. Then
it's that question when you're saying,how do you then go over okay?
But now what's the next step inreally even though showcasing that one? You
(10:43):
know, because and this is wherea creative coalition comes in to circle back
that we know that entertainment influences Ido think though, like, and I
don't know about it that way,but I do think that a person does
have a certain amount of agency.And then there is that heart where you
go, no, actually, thereare certain things that because of your genetic
(11:07):
makeup and your chemistry, the waythat eating a cookie will affect you,
the entire chemistry that kicks in isdifferent. That must be true. I
mean to be like, Okay,there is being twenty pounds overweight, and
there's being two hundred pounds overwhere,and when you start to go, wait,
(11:28):
if you could address it the sameway, how long it took to
really address alcoholism or drug addiction asa disease of Yes, but there's a
chemical thing that happens in your bodythat doesn't happen in everybody's body. Like
to get to that point, andthat's I don't think that we have.
It's just such an interesting thing,you know if like, I don't think
(11:52):
we've approached it that way. Ever, no entertainment has. So we raise
money to give money to artists,and we raised about three hundred and fifty
thousand dollars last year to give tofilmmakers to make four shorts about obesity that
are now on the film festival circuitnow and one film that was made.
It was about a woman who grewup in the South African American woman and
(12:16):
the name of the movie is calledBig Bone because also you never say the
word obesity. There are all theseeuphemisms. And the reason we use our
soapbox for it is because you haveto show how the arts can change the
way the world thinks. And that'swhy the arts are important. I agree,
And it was interesting. I wasin a Starbucks talking to an executive
(12:37):
about a decision maker one of thestreamers about content, and I was talking.
I did my thing. It's thelast shame and blame disease. It's
whispered. And then we were talkingand before he would say the word,
he looked to the right, andhe looked to the left, and he
whispered the word obesity. It's justlike, did you see what you just
did? It's not okay. Weall whisper it well, because it's still
(13:00):
the category of this sort of shamingcriticism. You should be ashamed. You
lost control, is what it is. You just you lost control and you
look bad. And the intellectual threatI personally find so interesting is that it's
not body positivity. It's different.You can be body positive, but you
(13:20):
can also understand the nuances of thisdisease and that does not mean you're not
body positive. That next step thatyou're talking about where it going okay,
what about coming at it this way? Which is which to me is in
some way that's a almost has tobe a holistic approach from the beginning.
Well, even like I was thinkingabout the mother character, Mandy Moore as
(13:43):
a parent, what did I dowrong? And maybe nothing that Mandy Moore
could have done differently would have changedKate's metabolism? What is interesting think about
like how I have a feeling thatthis is And maybe in that way the
show has been very positive in thatit is a topic that has been put
(14:07):
into the zeitgeist because of this character. And again this is why I believe
certainly the popular arts are so influentialtelevision and film, because it puts these
things into the living rooms of massivenumber of people. Who took fifteen twenty
million people, You go, wow, that's an obese character. Yeah,
a character who has obesity. Thenyou begin to, let's say, even
(14:31):
open up the subject matter. Idon't know how long this has been something
that has really been It sounds like, okay, this is interesting. This
is a subject that you got.It takes years, but I mean it's
interesting. You guys going, Okay, here's when we're going to go mental
illness was one. Let's approach obesityand let's open up this subject. It
(14:52):
would seem to me that during thegenesis of this that would be the approach
that one would want to take ifyou were going to do a character who
has obesity and you wanted to go, look at this as the approach we're
going to take. It's not goingto be the familial unconditional love approach as
a way of being positive and assertingthat these characters shouldn't live in the shadows
(15:18):
or be so ashamed. But let'stake the next thing, which is,
you know, like addiction or likemental illness, depression, whatever, these
are subject matters that need to comeout of the stone age and really be
looked at as medical conditionous as diseases. I would think that's the next approach
that I don't know, six yearsago or seven years ago, when Dan
(15:41):
was writing this and it had alot to do with his own family stuff,
he was taking the approach you knowwhat, we got to begin to
talk about this as a disease,because that would be fascinating approach if at
a different times go get this personto an endrowcrinologist. Let's begin to get
a story like your tom about goingout have need problems and the person going,
well, you got to lose weight, that's why you have deep problems.
(16:03):
It's like, no, actually Ihave a tormentiscus is what you find.
But that's a different I think ourshow has a more in the best
sense of the word, more ofa sentimental approach to things. And the
other thing I think r about thisis it's just that fine line also of
where if you're not really going toaddress it in the way you're tormented in
(16:26):
the complex way, you don't wantto do something that's in some way in
a sentimental way excuses it, thatsays, oh, you're a drug out
it you know you gotta go.No, it's a serious disease that needs
to be addressed. It's not sayingyou know, you be body positive,
end of story, We're all good. It's saying you can be body positive
(16:47):
and still recognize and attack this diseasethat you have as you would any disease.
I mean you're going to You're notgoing to just say, oh,
okay, you have cancer. You'regonna go. You gotta deal with the
can. That's a really valid butit's the curt and it's the courage of
dealing. I mean, I knowevery time I go on a diet,
when you announce it, it's allof a sudden you're accountable. Yeah,
(17:11):
and that's yeah, Okay, Ihave the next show that I want you
to run and create called John Batesup. He's an little creative Polish member.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah, oh yeah, we're having
dinner with Rob Yeah. Yeah,that's it's your game. You need to
be part of it. It's great. I mean, it's thoughtful people,
(17:32):
Yeah, making a difference. Andit's I always say, it's great that
people do this. We don't askyou to do things you don't do.
Our writers write, our actors act, our directors direct. And I think
that would be really cool to beThat would be great. Thanks so much,
Ken, And what can I say? You are truly the mastermind at
defining the pop culture touch points forgenerations. All y'all out there and podcast
(17:56):
land. Next time it's New AmsterdamStar Tyler Levine, who will be on
the Edge with us see then ifyou've been listening to On the Edge,
a podcast series from the Creative Coalition, hosted by Creative Coalition CEO Robin Bronk.
For more information on how you canprotect funding for the arts and harness
(18:18):
the power of the arts to promotesocial good, visit us at the Creative
Coalition dot org.
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. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a thought-provoking, opinionated, and topic-driven journey through the top sports stories of the day.