Joe Rogan Experience #1552 - Matthew McConaughey

hi

matthew

hi joe what's going on man, you put out a book, you put out a book, you got green lights trying to catch it, trying to create it, what makes a guy successful as an actor, what makes you want to expose more of yourself because that's what you're doing when you write a memoir, you're exposing your thought process your your life your lessons another way to communicate uh you know what I do my day job as an actor um it has four filters of raw expression there that's what I have there there's my raw expression there's what's being recorded there's what's being edited and there's what's being put on the screen um I wanted to do something where I got rid of the filters by writing a book there's a filter because it's the written word um what you do what we're doing now when you stand up that's unfiltered you know that's live it's live the big show is always recording uh kind of an end goal but I wanted to uh I wanted to put it down He goes down and says, "Hey, I want to be a part of these movies, they're usually written by someone else, directed by someone else, edited by another financial person, but someone said no, I want to go direct my own movie, I want to produce my own movie." movie while I do that I want to put the words on a page and I had been writing for 36 years so I had a lot of content to go through and see if it was something worth sharing yeah so you've been keeping a journal for 36 years yeah what made you start doing that, i think it's probably at first the usual reason someone journals, you know right, my heart is broken, gretchen donnelly broke up with me in the face, why do i only have peach fuzz on my penis? and everyone else and then I was in my early 20s um I remember I was kind of rolling I was in college I had a job I had money in my pocket I had a good girlfriend who got my grades my relationships were good and I remember saying oh no You had been writing in your journal so intently, you don't do that as much, Johnny, when things are going well and I said, I think you better start writing things down when things are going well, I mean, my idea was Hey, you will stagnate again, you will lose your frequency again in life.

You might want to revisit this to help you recalibrate and that turned out to be true. You know, many times we analyze failure. and and the difficulties of my life, but we didn't look at success and going back to those journals, I found that there were times when I got stuck later and I was able to go back to those journals and ask what your habits were when you were rolling, man, who with you walked, where you went, what you ate, what you drank, how much you slept, how you view life and they helped me recalibrate in the moments when I was out of frequency. and get back on the rails again and find my frequency again what were the things that when things were going well what were what were the common factors the common factors were one, check in with yourself before you communicate with the world when you wake up in the morning, really sit there and take a little time, read something that's between me and me, write something that's between me and me before picking up the damn phone and saying, hey, what emails came in or jumping into the kitchen and going and everyone else is already up going hey hey what's up take take take take 10 minutes to talk to me before you talk to the world um what were the other things sense of humor sense of humor um I found out I was laughing more um My happiest moment in my life when I got my wink back, man, when I got my wink back, if I lose it it's like, oh, I'm taking things too seriously, so I had more of a sense of humor, right? taking things personal in a lot of ways um and I wasn't asking for permission so much when I was asking for permission like what do you mean by that?

Well, I just asked for permission to go, you know, have the confidence to believe in something that I want to do and just do it and say hey, if you ask for permission, you're already creating one of those filters away from raw expression, just do it, it's in I live, can't you? What you're saying, how it sounds, it's like you almost like yourself. medicated with a type of medication or a type of meditation that you invented yourself, almost like you discovered a meditation because that's what people who meditate, that's what they say to do, take one you know x amount of time 10 20 whatever, minutes of the day focus on your breathing clear your mind of anxiety and stress and if you do it regularly you will have a happier life and it seems like you have discovered it on your own or read books on how to do it.

I think I figured it out on my own. I mean, the other thing I didn't tell you was to set aside the day before saying my prayers at night to get through the day, which I don't know about you, but it may be. It's hard to remember what you had for breakfast after dinner when you go to bed. It can be hard to remember what the first things we did during the day were, so I'll go back to my day when I'm happier. I'll go back to my day and I like to write a mental note of what's going to be tomorrow what are my plans for tomorrow um that's a great stress reliever for me um I think I learned that on my own I've always been a list keeper I I love making a long list of things to do during the day and I add everything, I add the simple things that you know you're going to do anyway on the list, you know, like kiss your wife, you know what I mean, drop a devil, whatever it is. write the things that I'm going to do just so it's more to check off the list that you write, you write, you have to like, remember, you know, enjoy, enjoy it or read something, read something funny or listen to that.

Your favorite song, something I know because the longer the list is, the more things I can check off that day, the more I feel like I've accomplished it, and the easier it is to do the hard things. You know, yeah, I do that. With some things I have to do like exercise and writing, I do it with some things, but it seems like you are very meticulous about this. Yes, I go through good streaks and cold streaks. You know, I do it more times than others, but. I have discovered that those are the common denominators. Some of the things I do when I'm happiest.

I'm not a big meditator, but I call my workout sweating once a day. Exercising I think is necessary because it puts a demarcation between all my responsibilities and sometimes I can look up, you know how it is if sometimes you go through the day or days and you're so busy and I'm good on autopilot doing things, but everything What The stress I have to do comes when we feel like those responsibilities are stacked vertically on our shoulders and there is a proverbial weight on our shoulders when I start to sweat, suddenly all those things that were stacked vertically on my shoulders my responsibilities are dropped and they're laterally in front of me, so there's no more weight on my shoulder and I find that I do those things better and with more pleasure if I just go, oh there they are in front of you, just handle one and then jump to the next handle that and jump to the next one and I handle it I handle it much better, but I need them.

I see demarcations between my responsibilities if I sweat, yeah I couldn't agree with that more, I think there is a biological relationship. I need that when human beings are under pressure because I think the way our bodies exert pressure historically genetically meant that your life was in danger and you had to exert energy and your body stored this energy, you had adrenaline rushes, you had anxiety. You had all these different physical needs that you had to take care of and if you don't exert energy those physical needs don't get met, your body is confused, it stores a lot of this and you just get anxious, yell at red lights and yell at people. just go crazy, in general your tolerance is much lower, but if you can satisfy that physical need, you are much better at handling life much better, much better, yeah, I couldn't tell people that enough, I'm a broken record with I say it too much and I love hearing people like you, successful people who have thought about many of the various aspects of the good and the bad in their life, express that because I think everyone needs to hear it, only we need to hear it. of enough people for it to be ingrained in everyone's head every day brush your teeth every day sweat just do it I mean, it's good for a lot of things yeah, you know, what people talk about, oh, you know, no there is stress.

Well yeah, stress is probably fine, it means you don't give a damn, you know what I mean, you're going to have stress, you're supposed to have stress, but I know I handle things better, more thoroughly, and more like me , as I want. the result is always better and I enjoy doing it more if I sweat and get those endorphins going and that press resets for me and shows me a little bit, it separates all the events like I said laterally and they don't feel. Like they're stacked on top of me, yeah, sleep too, sleep for me, how much do you get for a nine and a half night?

I love it, that's great. I wish I could do that, damn, when I get a nine and a half one hour a night oh my god I feel so good the next day I feel amazing I feel like a new person well I'm lucky to have a wife who says No, no, you get your nine and a half, I'll get my seven because I'd rather take care of the things I handle that you don't do while you're sleeping than be around you when you haven't gotten enough sleep. Ah well, you set it up right. Yeah, I can't emphasize that getting enough sleep is everything too. sleep exercise health keeping your body functioning properly all those things are just not a matter of vanity and it's not a matter of laziness, it's literally like it improves the quality of the way the mind works and you can do things better. the quality of your work will be better definitely think more clearly don't waste time chasing you don't know you're doing the right kind of work you know we all know I love hard work but I have a lot of There are times in my life when I'm doing the right kind of work wrong job.

I love the kind of job where I've accomplished what I needed to do during the day and I put my head on the pillow and I'm exhausted because I'm done. what I needed to do the best I could I don't like the exhaustion at the end of the day where I'm like a man, I feel like I was just going through the motions, man I don't know if today had any rise. I didn't build anything and today was a I don't know if maybe I regressed you know I don't like that kind of exhaustion um and that's the kind of exhaustion that I don't really sleep well actually It keeps me awake.

The only thing I get out of those shitty days is the desire to never have those shitty days again. I think the good thing about negative feelings is recognizing how good the positive feelings are. How good the feelings of achievement are. fail and that's why we're talking about, you know, no stress, just live in peace, that's nonsense, it's like never feeling bad, then you're never going to appreciate feeling good, yeah, I need hills and valleys, I'm with you. uh 100 about that, I mean, I write in my book, you know, and I get asked a lot if you believe in fear and I say, well, yeah, I believe in the future, who doesn't believe in fear, well, you know, you see. there's no fear, oh those people are so dumb like, no, no, no, I do it and they say, are you afraid?

I said that I am afraid every day is the overcoming of fear or I know that I was raised, you know that we were a physically disciplined family we have we have the belt they did not punish us my parents' motto was we are not going to punish you because that takes up your time and your time is the most valuable thing no, we never got hurt, we just got hurt at that moment you cried and it was over but there were things that I didn't do while I was growing up and I still don't do for fear of the consequences that your works for me were gone, I took back things that I didn't do it while I was growing up and so it wouldn't.

It would be very fun, but not that much, no more fun than how much it's going to suck if they catch me. The physical consequences are a very controversial topic because a lot of people think that I don't hit my children, but a lot of people. I know people my age were hit when they were young and they look back on it and say you know what I learned from that and my parents didn't, they didn't hit me, they physically punished me for something I did wrong and they didn't do it to be sadistic, so They did it because they cared about me and that's how they were raised.

It's a very controversial topic because people get up in arms about hitting children, you know, so yeah, you bring it up. Saying that it was beneficial to you will surely raise the hackles of many people and I get asked all the time and I have openly shared how I was raised and what kind of corporal punishment we received, I don't choose. You know, discipline my kids the same way my parents did, but I've said it before. I wouldn't trade a single one of those guns that I got for the values ​​that were instilled in me when I got them and I'm very clear and It was the moment that I earned everything I got, I earned everyone and we were family, you know, my parents were Like we get through it again and again, we take it and it's over and we don't hold any grudges, no one's going to talk about it. again and if you got in trouble that was the night dad would take us across town to our favorite burger place and let us stay as late as we wanted. and it was over um you're in more trouble if you tell him something aboutnew, you know, to someone in the family, yes, but what happens when you do that?

No, no, they already got in trouble for that, you don't mention it again, you couldn't. go to sleep in our family holding a grudge my parents would stay up all night and let you miss school to sit there and keep arguing until we could hug him cry and say I love you and move on sounds like you have a wise family I want I mean, it's a controversial thing to say if you get hit and a lot of people would say there are other ways to do it, but the way they made you hold it and stay up all night and communicate it sounds very wise I think.

It was, you know, I don't know, you know, like I said, I don't choose to discipline my kids the same way my parents discipline me, but I sure don't judge them or say what they did was wrong. from a different time. Well, yes, yes, that is something that is very difficult for people to understand: you know, human beings who grew up 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago were a different world, it was just different and we know more now and how if you were saying that you don't choose to discipline your kids that way, but it was very common back then, yeah, I mean, it was that my parents probably thought they were taking it easier on their kids more than their parents did.

They treated them. yeah, they probably had it a lot harder, yeah, you know, and it's like I said, there are things that I didn't do and that I shouldn't have done for fear of beating my ass, so you know there's value in that, in that fear and consequences and consequences go both ways you know there are goblins in the bathroom there is a consequence for everything we do but there were definitely things that I didn't do and that I shouldn't have done uh for fear of the consequences that were useful to me is this The writing of This book is almost like letters to your younger self, like a lesson for people who are like you, because one of the things that is so beneficial for young people is reading autobiographies and memoirs of successful people, who lived in a way extraordinary.

Life is you can see the whole thought process, you can see the warts, the failures, the whole thing, the fears, the anxiety, you can see it all, so you go, oh, that Matthew McConaughey guy, he's a guy Normal, it's not just the type. from the dallas buyers club and all these movies, he's a normal human being and maybe one day I can reach heights like him too or maybe I read this book and I'm someone who feels like you know, like we often do when we go. through a crisis we are the only ones and it has only happened to me I am the center of the universe no one else will understand and you can read and go well here is a successful guy who shoots even maybe I thought he was just nice He gets out of bed and he makes everything look easy, which you discover.

I try to work towards that point, but maybe you look, hear and say. Oh, he went through similar things. I share some stories here that are very subjective. for me, but the more subjective and personal I became, the more I found that, oh, these are more relatable to a larger amount of people, so you can read a story and voila, I have that story, a similar story in my life, well , here's how McConaughey handled it or I wish he would have handled it or here's some help he got along the way here's a place where he took a walk with himself and discovered some things about himself maybe that's something he could do for me yourself, so there are some tools in the book for someone to see themselves and help us get out of the red and yellow lights of crisis, but also how to navigate things when we run into green lights because I have a chapter here called the art of running downhill, you know, myself.

Sab, I self-sabotaged when things were going too well before, um, until I discovered that that really wasn't my right to put a ceiling on my expectations and who the hell did I think I was. Well, that's more common. So, isn't it? People have what they call, uh, it was imposter syndrome. You know, it's just that you don't feel like you deserve all the good things that are happening to you and it just seems strange that you see it happening to other people. It almost makes sense to see other people being very successful if you're detached, but when it happens to you it's almost like that, this is uncomfortable because it's not normal, so I'm going to do this to feel the way I used to feel. before which at least even if it was a failure it's comfortable, I'm used to it I need some resistance, yeah, you know, look, and I think there are very healthy ways to create resistance in our lives when we're on the so-called easy street , Yeah. maybe not challenging ourselves in the right way, you know we need to build resistance to get through it and feel more alive, but there are also silly moments to build resistance and the fact is that things are going so well that you think that's how it will be for the rest of your life don't trust me the uphill comes the drama the real drama is coming don't create any fake drama in front of you right now because you are patronizing yourself the real drama is coming someone leaves to make you sick you will get hurt, something will happen in your life, the world will do it to you or you will do it to yourself, so don't trip running down a hill and face a plant and break your damn nose just because you needed something. resistance running downhill, yes, because it must be that it comes uphill, you know what I mean, but going back to the first part, I am a big fan of creating resistance to keep myself in check and make sure that I feel more alive to overcome the right things in my life.

Yes, I also believe that physical resistance is the best thing to calm my mind and provide physical challenges that allow me to deal with success more easily because there is that I have to deal with, but it is physical and sometimes it is a mental challenge to do, you know , exercises that require a lot of physical effort or particularly jiu jitsu or martial arts because it just breaks you down and then the other things that are so-so. It seems like it should be complicated but it's not, you don't know why you don't sweat as much, wait, it sobers you up, yes, in a very literal way, in the same way, it's a daily routine to be sober to shoot.

Leave the liar in your life that worried you so much and go to what really needs to happen. The mountains become molehills. You know it, it's what you know. The great moments of our lives leave us sober too. I know my father goes on and passes away. of this life made me serious in a way that then I stepped forward and said oh you no longer have your dad to trust to catch you when you fall all these things he's been teaching you that you've been doing b b disadvantages in life, now you better start criticizing him because he's not there, so you better get hold of him and I remember when he moved on, I carved this into a tree.

I will be less impressed, more involved and what he was as soon as he passed away. I realized that all the things I mortally revered in life, like fame, people, success, money, were brought down to eye level, the things I looked at and all the things I condescended to and condescending, and that I was dismissing, that's not worthy of me, they rose to eye level and I remember saying boy, the world is flat, I'm looking into your eyes, I see further, I see wider, I see more Of course, I have to take possession of myself and I stayed with my heart, I raised my head and walked forward and started doing things and that way I said "eh" without asking so much permission all the time and I did a lot of things. more things and I became much more myself and found more satisfaction, yes, sometimes people.

I need a wake-up call to let you know that this is a temporary existence and make the most of it and enjoy it and sometimes it doesn't happen unless something tragic happens, like in a terrible way but also in a beautiful way. a lot of power and tragedy because you get something on the other side and you get clarity, we will get some clarity in this tragic and uncomfortable time of covid, yes there are lessons that we are learning that we don't even know. what they are now that when we come out of this will be inherently part of our being that will move forward, I sure hope so, but you know us humans, we quickly go back to how we were before, yes, my concern.

It's just that it's happening very fast but it's going to take a long time to balance and reach equilibrium, that's what worries me with this wait, what's happening, the deterioration, you know, the financial deterioration, the fear of changes with the masks and social distancing and everything is happening so fast that I'm worried it's going to be a long time before people feel comfortable again oh yeah I mean look I think for millions of people yeah this is the new normal. I guess I don't think we'll ever go back to the way it was. I mean, this is a year where we agree or disagree with how we've done it and how things have been politicized here and there.

This is a year that shook our floor, I don't think this will ever be this year, it will be on page 14 of the news for quite some time, I think we have a lot to rebuild in the long term, it may be a 20 year build, Yeah. I know I agree, it's just strange, it just feels strange, going out into the world just feels different than it did a year ago and that's that phrase, the new normal that people like to mention and this is where we meet. but I, along with you, am almost always an optimist and I have a lot of faith in human beings and I believe that we can overcome this and have a very valuable lesson about when things happen that are positive and Well, maybe we don't take it for granted as much as we did it before because we never thought something like this would happen and the whole world would shut down for seven eight nine ten who knows how many months, yes, a forced winter.

Yes, we had one for the first time on us in something that we did not take enough time to impose and choose on ourselves. You know, you talked about optimism, and I'd love to talk about that with you and faith in humanity and myself. The other day they asked me how I trust and this is a moment in the world where there is great distrust and people do not believe, not only do you trust, you do not trust others, you end up not trusting yourself etcetera, that is a rest of the process, it goes and comes and then everyone walks in circles, but my answer and I never thought about it until this guy asked me, I thought, well, like I'm talking to you right now, Joe, I give you.

Have 100 of my trust until you do, I'm not going to hedge my bet with you or anyone I meet for the first time. I'm not going to go in, well you're really going to have to earn your trust with me. I'm taking care of you, no, you have one hundred percent. You can ask me some questions right now. I think you're getting something else that's not the best for me and maybe then you'll start to lose some of my trust. but as of now we meet, you have one hundred percent until it starts to taper off and that's all that's up to you.

I try to approach everyone like that first, so what's that like? And let's talk about optimism because there is foolish optimism and I. Don't think that what you and I are saying is hey class half full, always see it half full no, let's recognize that it is half empty, that is the inevitable part, it is half empty or full, now what is the constructive path to follow, right? What can you do something with? Half the glass has nothing or half has something good, I think what I can do is with the half that has something do something that waters and creates more water to fill it, I mean, choose where We can be constructive and in the end choose the affirmative and that is not a silly optimism because many times I believe that certain optimisms are a distinctive card, optimists can almost deny that there was the other half of the glass that was empty or deny that it is a problem . and I don't like, I'm not really a buyer, of denying where there's a problem that you have, you have what I call whiskey philosopher wisdom, like you and I were having a couple of drinks at the bar that I own. a feeling that you would say something cool that I would remember and take home and say hmm, it would be like lying in bed, damn, I'm going to remember that that makes a lot of sense, where did you get that from? from ah, I think I mean, I grew up on founded storytellers.

I love drinks. I love bumper stickers. I love slogans. I love deconstructing a big conversation down to what a sentence is. What is the title of that song we just sang? What is the title of this one? you know this time or whatever you and I talk about um what's the title of a relationship I have what is it and you've had enough of that stuff oh what's the title of the album um I think about things lyrically and I think it might be from there where it comes from I think in a musical in a musical way it is something that you have acquired, it is something that you always had or you just slowly developed it.

I guess I guess it developed slowly. I mean, again, I come from a family. of storytellers where we would sit around the table and tell stories and if you didn't tell your story well, someone else the table would take over and you would talk, you better tell a good story and don't drag on or lose your train of thought because someone else will step in and turn around. You're right, so when you want to talk, you better be a good storyteller. So goodjust go do a job and get paid during quarantine and lockdown, my family and I had movie night basically every day. night, especially when the kids were doing zoom classes because you know, it was like we had to do something different so we mixed it up and we saw contact again and I haven't seen contact in a long time and first of all, damn, what ? a good movie that was good, it's a good movie and a great movie about aliens as a movie that gives you a different perspective on the possibilities of contact and just the fact that it was a carl sagan book and there's a lot of good things in it, That character you played was a fascinating guy and I feel like there's something of you in that guy, of course, I mean, it's you, you are, am I wrong?

They are religious in some way, yes, yes, absolutely and I want, I want to bring this up in this day and age where people say no, I'm not religious, I'm just spiritual, you know what the Latin root of religion is, re lagare and lagare. it means unite re means again good in a world that says I'm only spiritual because I want unity, that's exactly what religion means, we've bastardized its meaning over time and we've excluded people and we've become corporatized and things like that. but yes, I am religious, that character, you know, had written stories. I wrote a college paper called John Wayne Gos West and it was about how you can be a believer in a world of science and I remember that.

I wrote things like during the making of that movie like science is the practical search for God. The two are not exclusive, they dance together, they go together, the belief in science and I never saw them as contradictions and that's part of the reason I attacked that role and became a part of that film. I wanted to play a person who had that point of view of a believer in a world of science, not excluding science and not excluding belief, yes, it is a confusing role for a lot of people, if someone is a believer and also an advocate of science, because you want to know what your literal beliefs are, are you taking the Bible at its literal word or are you using it as a sort of guide to the

experience

s of these people who lived thousands of years ago that have been translated from multiple languages ​​other than English And is there wisdom in those translations?

Is there wisdom in those original thoughts? these thousands of years of people contemplating and reflecting on these things and that so many I have used them as scaffolding for morals and ethics and for societies, yes, it is, it is, it is, I mean, you know, for people who say , oh, it's, it's, it's, it's a circus book or people didn't have non-believers and I'm like, well. is still the best um there are many great truths that come out of the Bible and it is open to many people it has been interpreted and reinterpreted it has been translated it has been transmitted um I for me don't I don't know what to do in my daily life with the burning push I don't know what to do with that um yes I know what to do with loving your neighbor like you yes I know what to do with Matthew 6 22 if they be single that the whole body will be full of light I know what to do with some proverbs that I can put into daily practice and say oh I felt my life I felt an improvement I felt success in my relationships and my relationship with the day with my career following that, um, treating others how I wanted to be treated, the golden rule, so I take the practical things myself myself, I mean, I try to try to use them and then I choose what might work for me when you say no I don't know what to do with the burning bush, what do you mean by that?

I don't know what to do on a daily basis with the teaching of um and then he, you know, and then he, he, he appeared like a the burning bush or the magic tricks and I don't know what to do with and Jesus healed everyone that he and he couldn't walk and now you touched him and he can walk I don't know what to do with that I don't I don't know how to incorporate that into my life and say "oh, there is something useful and practical and healthy for you, Matthew, that you can practice there, so the magic that leans towards you you know what we would call now more fantasy, I don't." I don't know what to make of that, there are philosophies, proverbs and teachings that I think are very valid and very useful, that we could all remember, that are in the Bible and that I find quite useful, yes, I think it is almost impossible to understand what they were trying to say with a lot of the things, so it's open to interpretation but also manipulation and that's where people have a real problem when it's used to separate people to exclude them. marginalize people to judge them, but it's hard for people who understand that those aspects and those things happen to really analyze that there's good in it too and there's a lot of really valuable lessons in these books 100 percent, um, look , I understand.

I mean, you know, it's like what do our parents teach us? Is your father still alive? Well, I don't really know him. I have a complicated family history. Well, fathers are father figures. I have a stepfather. He still. I live and I'm close to him, well, stepdad, when he's gone, you'll discover some things where the messenger and the message weren't exactly on the same page. I'm sure you know what I mean. Does that mean you throw out the messenger just because? you're like, oh, you weren't following all that stuff, no, you take the message, these are the things that you can, that might work for you, that maybe they wanted it for you, they couldn't follow it themselves, there are certain parts of the bible that also has that you don't throw away everything you can't think that it makes sense to throw away the whole book is what we are doing in society now I mean, we are, we are, we are making people persona non grata uh because of something that they do or you know and that is now considered wrong or the hot spot on a hot topic right now, you can erase someone's entire existence where the hell does some forgiveness go and again that, like optimism, is not erasing the crisis, no He's saying that there wasn't a problem first, he's not saying that there are virgin parts of the Bible that people have bastardized and misused, um, but he doesn't throw away the whole book and say well, that's it, that's all. bad, then everything is used because it is false, have you had difficulties expressing this?

In Hollywood, you know that Hollywood is predominantly left-wing and very secular or Jewish in some circles, but it's not a place. where fundamental Christian values ​​are openly upheld, you know there are a lot of Jews in Hollywood and that seems fine for a lot of people, but for other religions, especially if you're a fundamentalist Christian or if you have a lot of Christian values. of people who are frowned upon, why do you think that is and have you had difficulties with it? I don't know, I haven't had difficulties, I have and I won't throw anyone under the bus, but I have had them.

Moments when I was on stage receiving an award in front of my peers in Hollywood and there were people in the crowd that I had prayed with before dinners many times and when I thanked God I saw some of those people go applaud, but then I noticed something bad on my resume and then sitting on his hands oh wow and I've seen people read the room and say whoa that wouldn't bode well for me in the future if I was to get a job or get votes or what have you seen? I have seen that I have witnessed that.

I don't judge him for that. I just want you to know that it seems like a silly argument. It's one of the things that our art There are people, some people in our industry, not all, but there are some that go left so far, like our friend Jordan Peterson, who came back, watched his video, who goes left. irreliberal so far, that's very condescending and to condescend to 50 people in the world who need the empathy that liberals have and should give them um a to throw someone out to illegitimate them because they say they are believers is so ar

rogan

t uh and somehow hypocritical to me um yeah, so I haven't run into, you know, I haven't gotten in trouble with it, but I've always looked at my career, I've pretty much followed my own path and from prostitute to thief, I'm just trying to find a way out of it. what I was doing and I haven't measured it or noticed where it has hurt me or gotten away with what I wanted to achieve in Hollywood I think it slipped through the net it got far enough downstream where it's not It's going to be a problem, Well, kind of like when you know, like my mom when I first became famous.

You know, it's a great story in the book. Just when I became famous, I'm trying to figure out my own and then, uh, the next one. One night I get a call and my friend says: Hello, are you watching this? I'm like you, you turn on the printout and there's my mom with a cameraman taking a guy around our house and this is where I caught him in bed with Melissa, you know what? I have it doing there oh, don't worry, it's no big deal. I've seen it thousands of times and I'm going to call her.

I'm like mom, what did you do? She's what I'm going to do. I'm not saying what I can hear and you're on the other end of the line, you're seeing it too, it's a printout, she says, oh, I didn't think you'd find out eight years of the relationship between my mother and me being strained. Couldn't I not have a mom to talk to and share things with because hell would appear in hard copy the next night once my career was solidified enough, you know right? I slipped through the net. It was stable enough. I walked in and let out the rain and said mom, do it, you can take the mic anytime, you can go on the red carpet, wear your short leather dress and talk whatever you want, tell whatever stories you want, but again it took me a while feel stable enough to escape the grid and let her be herself too with this thing you're talking about, uh, people who put people down for their opinions, their beliefs and the way they live their life, I think a lot of This comes from this condensed form of impersonal communication that we are getting from social media.

I think it's largely due to the way people judge people and the way people communicate with people one on one is how human beings are supposed to. We talk, that's how we're supposed to figure things out and when you look into a person's eyes and

experience

their feelings and read their social cues, that's how we communicate and that's how we figure things out, analyze things and figure out every a. others and maybe someone has a different set of beliefs than you, but they happen to be your neighbor and you like them and you say, hey man, tell me what it's like to be a Sikh, what it's like to be a Muslim, what are your beliefs as a Quaker?

What are you like? What going on in your life? Tell me. I had a neighbor who was one of my favorite neighbors I've ever had. He was a Scientologist and he was an outsider. friend, but he was always very friendly. I would go outside, we would have weird conversations about these things he was doing and I would just try to understand him and he would try to understand me. You know, we always say hello. We're always friendly, I miss that guy, but him, him and I, if we were talking online, it would be like he was a younger, dumber man and he said something about his beliefs and I thought.

That was stupid, I'd probably say what kind of fool are you that you believe such nonsense written by a science fiction author, but talking to the guy was never how I spoke to him when he and I were looking at each other. We are just two neighbors trying to understand each other and trying to be friendly and have a harmonious neighborhood. Well, it's one of the things I think you're going to like about your new home, the city. I think I mentioned this. to you when I called to welcome you, you know that one of the best things about Austin, Texas, is that, although it is the cranberry and tomato soup, the most liberal city in the conservative state, you can see neighbors next door among They're talking to each other and one has a trump sign in the yard the other has a son Biden in the yard they're still talking no one's sneaking out in the middle of the night to break that other person's sign Yeah it's when Austin is in his best time, you know, I think you know and I have little kids that they're starting to have, we don't allow them on social media yet, but you see these. people, you are living in a time where you get something out of yourself and your entire self worth depends on what the outside world, strangers you don't know comment on it and if I post a photo I'm actually happy excited about in instagram tonight and if I go to look what the reaction is and the majority says oh f hugh

mcconaughey

this suddenly I'm having a bad night I'm having a bad time but if you go to the same photo and you become incredible and this consensus is incredible, suddenly you have controlled how I feel and I'm having a great night, I'm in a great mood, so we're in it, we're like at the behest of people we're reacting, that's what we're doing more of in this society, we're reacting and look, you know the things that happen in issues right now, is that everyone is reacting to things instead of instead of creating the story or having an opinion from the beginning, um, and hey, I get it to a certain extent, because today Nowadays the people who get you are hired and fired for those things, yes, you know there is iron on you, they hire you and fire you or they don't hire you. because you don't have that many people following whatever it is, um, that's a measure now of what we call success in this life, yarecovered, I have a listening tour and I talk about diversity in Austin and it's an international destination, now I talk about you. know the equality of austin you know the ruleIn Austin it's always been that all you have to do is be yourself, that's kind of the rule, that's the great thing about Austin, not what you think you should be, but just be you Same thing, it doesn't matter if you're a short, blue-haired American lesbian.

Indian cowboy sheriff, whatever, everyone's sitting at the same bar having a drink and no one's yelling about their place because if you're yelling, hey, I want you to know I'm different in Austin. Austin is like saying, what were you yelling about? We didn't really care, that's one of the best things about Austin, at its best, it celebrates the differences when Austin is at its best. Austin doesn't try to homogenize people to say, hey, we're all the same, no, no, we're all very. different and that's great but we have some social contracts between us we are a clean place we don't like to cheat steel to get where we are going we look forward but we appreciate tradition at the same time we care as much as we can about our natural beauties around here at the same time time we are a metropolis we are growing now how can we grow and grow and still grow deeply?

That's what I want to lean on, what the roots are, so we're not going to look up again in 10 years and ask who are we going to become, where do all these socialites come from, you know, yeah, one thing that's plaguing Los Angeles and what I'm starting to see here is the intention of homelessness around the world. The city of Los Angeles is out of control, I mean, it's strange that it hasn't been handled. I mean, I was having a conversation with my friend Brian about this before the show and he was telling me that in Burbank they just shut that down and won.

Don't let it happen, you can't just pitch a tent somewhere. I mean, I'm an empathetic person and I think you know all the people who are out there who are homeless and who are down on their luck for whatever reason, whether they've been abused or they're alcoholics or drug addicts or whatever, they're all ours. brothers and sisters and I am not a social engineer. I don't know what the solution to something like this is, but I know. it gets out of control it gets out of control if you go to Venice my friend Bridget sent me a video of her driving through Venice and it's a mile of tents, I mean a straight mile, she stuck her phone out the window and she's tense in everywhere like It's crazy, how can anyone stop that without being a how to maintain empathy and say hey, you can't put a tent on the sidewalk?

A great question and I don't know the answer. Um, you said it before. Look, a lot of these, most of these people have mental problems or have taken drugs, so you know, in Austin, we're, you know, putting something in some vacant hotels, um, I don't know. To what extent is that working? You know, I have friends who have businesses downtown and they have homeless people camping out front and if someone comes in, this homeless person who has this tells them off. uh uh mental uh something mentally twisted and they're not on their toes. Don't know. Don't know.

You can't eliminate the problem, but how do you know? This question of how we rehabilitate is a constant question. not just with homeless people, you know, it's, you know, with people who are not homeless and who don't have mental problems, we have the issue of rehabilitation, I mean, and for those people I say, well, you have to do it. sincerely seek retribution and understand what you did wrong to have the opportunity to be forgiven and to be rehabilitated and to have a second chance for the homeless. I think you know, I mean, I think if you're going to go to how to do it.

How can we make them more mentally stable? Can we get them mental help? on this side of the sidewalk um and then you end up with a you know, a shantytown or something like that, um, you know, I think there always will be, to some extent, you know, um, there will be homeless people, there will always be homeless people. home. some socioeconomic imbalance that I don't think we're ever going to have, that's another thing that I think we have to do as a people, especially on the left, having to realize all this perfect equality between all of us and perfect justice, I don't think it's a possible destination for anyone, I think it's great to keep America, there is a constant chase to chase a plane, yeah we will never get there and that's the point, just keep chasing it, try to have a little bit of ascension in our journey in the future. and a little bit of evolution, but we'll never get to this utopian state where ta-da we did it it's it's it's the Garden of Eden before it ate an apple you know it's not going to happen, I don't think so um so I don't know, I wonder what's the best way to rehabilitate situations like homelessness, uh um, all the time and no, I don't know the answer.

I know, if we can get them mental help and then. give it to someone you know, not just can we make prisons, not just a holding cell, I mean think about it, if prisons really worked once you've served your time, you should be able to afford the money, yeah, yeah, You should be better, you're not even better. money, you'll come out with the scarlet letter and you'll have to work five times harder than the next guy to get that job. um, you know, if you're such a criminal, they'll find you. and located and they are going to share your location across the city and you are going to find out from your neighbor that you are going to move and you can understand the people who go, I don't want someone living next door to me, well, if the rehab If it worked it would be like well no it's okay because they got their period it doesn't really work like that so it's a constant question I have about what's the best way to rehab yeah no one seems to have an answer I mean everyone They raise their hands in the air and keep moving.

What do I not know? You know one of the things you were talking about before Jordan Peterson talked about equality of outcomes is a terrible idea, equality of opportunity is a fantastic idea, the opportunity to be successful, but the problem with equality of outcomes is. that there is no equality of effort and one of the beautiful things about society is that you and this is what we were talking about before. to read your memoirs and to read the autobiography of a successful person is to realize that there is work to do, there are things you have to do to be that person, those people to admire and it is not easy and some people are not. they're going to do that job and if they're not going to do that job they're not going to achieve that result and that's life and you know, and equal opportunity, you know, that's not even real because different people start in different blocks in Life starts in different places, starts with different challenges and different physical attributes and physical problems.

Everyone has their own hand of cards that they deal you, yes, but treat people equally and give them the best possible opportunity that we can as a community and as a culture, that's what we're all fighting for and the problem with the situation of the homeless and the problem with prisons is a similar problem is that the oppressed, the people who have reached a bad point in the game of life, they like what our responsibility is towards them and if we are a community Like there's only three of us and one of us is on top, come on, hey, let's help Mike, you know he's on top, let's try to bring Mike into the fold and give him some life. lessons and give it some love and hope that we can bring it back to a point where a couple of years from now we'll look back and say, hey, look, you used to be there and now you're here and everything is great. that's what we would ultimately love, but there are too many challenges and too many people and everyone has their own problems, so people throw their arms in the air and keep moving and these things don't seem to get better. the prison population seems to increase the homeless population, especially during this pandemic, has increased.

I don't have answers, you know, I really don't, so I'm going around as much as anyone, yeah, yeah, it's a question. that hasn't been answered yet on many levels um before this time after this time you know equal opportunity that would be the work that would be there because then it could be measured because we are all born with different innate abilities and if I'm lucky enough to be in a position where we do well. I'm going to do what I'm good at and I'm going to work hard for it. And they will educate me on what I am willing to do. to work, america is a place where that is the american dream, that is what they mean by the land of opportunity, if you have the opportunity to pursue what you want to do and if you are willing to work for it and educate yourself about it, You have the opportunity to make a life, I understand that there is not equal opportunity in all areas, I understand that I personally was born with different innate abilities than yours or someone else's.

I was also born with more opportunities, more opportunities than a Many people I was born into a two-parent family. That's one of the biggest diseases that I think we have in the United States. The family unit sometimes breaks down too quickly, too easily. You know, mom or dad disintegrate. If things get tough too quickly, then you know, I, you know, I was, some would say symmetrically speaking, I'm a good-looking guy, so that gets me into doors that maybe other people wouldn't have gotten into. The best thing is that once I walk in the door I won't apologize for the opportunities I've had, but I understand that I've had opportunities that other people haven't had.

I've created many on my own, but I've also been introduced to and met people who opened those doors for me that wouldn't have been open to other people. um, yeah, what do we do with them? I think there is a place and this is what I am striving to get to and understand more. and more, none of us do anything about anything unless it's intellectually personal, we talk about it, it makes sense, but we don't really take action until it gets past our walls and will affect me, you or my family, that's when we come on.

Okay, I'm going to take action, so I think whatever we do has to be personal, the choice that I'm making for my own selfish choice for me, there's a place where there's a choice where that's what's best for me as well. the greatest number of people where personal choice is also the best option for the greatest number of people I call it the selfish utilitarian that's where the eyes meet the we um that's where what we want is what we need and what we need is actually what we want or what is best for us is what is best for the greatest number of people where where we were the most we are actually the most selfish or we are the most selfish we are actually the most selfless that is the place where When I talk about green lights, there is a place to create green lights that are better for us and for others at the same time, that is the honey hole, I don't know exactly what that place is all the time, but that is the place where I think we could all be. a little more aware of how we move forward and make decisions based on that, Austin seems to be a manageable size while I was trying to describe this to one of my friends in LA, he says, What's so good about Austin?

First of all, people are not devalued because there are not too many of them. There is a problem when there are too many people. Then people become a nuisance. There are too many. Austin doesn't have that problem, so when I look at the homeless problem. in austin like you know this isn't out of control but it looks like you can still fix it like someone has to realize this could get out of control and this is something you can somehow it's within the bounds of resources to intervene and manage this and now yes, before it comes to light, yes, we look up 10 years ago, it's too late, it's out of control like that, yes, yes, just grow up and turn your back on it, not look at it and now everything is suddenly out of control and I don't know what to do with it it happens fast it happens fast Venice two years ago wasn't this there were some tents every time you know here and there you would see tents now it's crazy and I would like to say, obviously, you're dealing with a much larger population in California, but this, this place is special, I mean, there really is, it's, it's, it's, it's huge in size and the people here are really exceptional, It has a personality.

It has a unique place, like a mix of cowboys and hippies, it's a strange place, you know, and it's that mix of all these different types of people that has made it very tolerant and unique, and the fact that there is a university here and there are a lot of artistic people and musical people and creative people it's real, it's a very good place and I'm happy to be here, but I don't want it to go up, I hear you well, many of you know that there is a community in Austin. and austin in his prime comes together and realizes that he has an identity to move forward with to protect um and you're right he's not that big and i think he can grow and he can grow while still having a sense of himself and his own identity in it to protect that identityand grows.

Turn the page. Progress. Yes, it is coming, but it also preserves the core DNA of who we are. We are no longer the small hippie town that only had some music in the capital and a university. No, we are technology dot com. city ​​we are banker city lawyer city international destination all those things that's fine but in that there is a you know what Austin has I want to help define by listening to many Austinites also what is our constitution in Austin that is separate from any place otherwise, this is something you are actively trying to do, you said a culture minister, is this something?

Do you have a thought in your head about how to do it? Yeah, I have a shared values ​​campaign that I've put together um and I want to advertise and sell austin to austin all over Austin and they're kind of aspirational values ​​based messages just to remind us who we are to keep the community as close together as possible. to form expectations. and solidify the expectations between us, um, so if someone acts outside of those, they are noticed and pushed back, it's another thing that austin does very well, austin austin, I don't know what it's like now, um, since we've had like uh black lives matter protests and stuff, but Austin used to be.

There was a great relationship with the police force, not just with me seeing Matthew McConaughey walking down the street with John and Jane Doe, you'll crawl. You know you were Jay. walking down Sixth Street, they caught you before and they elbowed you and said, hey, don't do it, before they gave you the ticket, there was a play like they were part of the community, they could, they felt like they knew you. give them a wave, you didn't see a cop in austin, oh you saw when you waved and if they weren't looking you never felt like they were out to get you, crime was low you know so we'll do it.

Look at how that relationship needs to be worked on in the city of Austin, um, you know a lot right now, yeah, what were your thoughts when the idea of ​​defunding the police became a reality? Well, let's look at that to defund the police with that nickname. If I wanted to say it's almost like it should have been renamed because defunding the police doesn't sound at all like money has been reallocated to different areas to handle some policing exercise, it sounds like you have a million, we're taking 300,000 good. luck, yes, and that's not exactly what being fair is.

I, the community and the police, and not just in Austin but everywhere, I think they are doing this in Miami to educate Miami, we need to get back together and the community needs. to say this is what is unfair this is how this is how I feel unfair as a black man or person of color or whatever situation here it is here is my problem with my relationship with you as police officers well the police have to come clean to go well With all our strength is not screwed, we have to have law and order. Do we all agree on that?

Yes, we can all agree that we have some bad apples that need to be trained better so that we don't have those kinds of bad things. apples or people or cops drowning under under under no and I mean the word like goal line clumsiness I don't mean literally joking I mean they don't do their duty the right way when they're under that when they're under pressure in the heat of the moment, that's what I mean, there are police officers who have done that, so we need to weed out some of these bad apples, but we also need to make sure that we are training them better now also the police officers need to go to the community and go, can you remember and understand our point of view that we are like the tow truck driver?

They don't call us when there is good news. They call us when there is good news. bad news so we are going to look for problems so we are already under stress if we get a call. Can you help us in our way of communicating? Can we trust that again if a police officer says? Hey, stay still, take your hands out of your pocket, keep it up, yeah, I'm doing that so we're not, something's not going to happen to us, uh, that shouldn't, there's going to be a you know, because obviously the situation is like that no.

They're calling you, you're not in that situation when it's good news, you know, so everyone's tensions are already high, but that's, you know, as far as fun goes, let's see, let's see if this reallocates money. like in Austin and other places how that works, I mean, my first instinct was I don't see how that repairs the relationship between the community and the police force. I don't see how that's coming together, that's just how it is. I don't see how that's going to rehabilitate that relationship um and now you have hard feelings on both sides um again let's see I don't know if we really had a bird in our hand when we made the change do we? we practice these other ones, we've seen these other forms where reallocated money goes to 911 calls and things like that, we've seen these other forms work, we've seen they are improvements, I don't know, so hopefully we'll see if this is it. just kind of a guinea pig in the idea, we'll see how it goes, but I'm more in favor of saying "okay" rather than taking away your money and funds, which you could use to train better and work on the relationship. about what your job is and what you expect and what the communities expect from you.

I'd rather have done that than taken money from them, so let's see how this experiment goes. Yeah, I couldn't agree more, I think they. They need training, they need more training and more understanding, and I think we all need to understand that there are an enormous number of these people who are under insane stress every day and who probably have massive PTSD, and you know if you are every day. time you are. stop someone you worry about getting shot every time you visit someone's apartment for a domestic abuse case you worry about getting killed you are going to see someone get killed you have seen murders and deaths and The human mind is not designed to deal with that kind of stress day after day and many of these people you know it when you see these horrible reactions that police officers have in situations where they completely exceed their limits and abuse people, yes.

I think a lot of those people have really risen up by the time they get to that point and I don't know, yeah, a lot of people rose up before, that's right, or they got to where they even became a cop or they became a cop for the reason. correct, uh, they had personal problems and we need to filter those people and that is also achieved through training, the same type of training that they filter people through the military. You know, when you want to be a Navy Seal, you have to pass. Friends and good luck, if you have a lot of character defects, you won't make it, you will be exposed and I think what we need is counseling, training and then communication with the community, we don't need to defund ourselves.

It seems to them like a popular social sentiment that people are repeating because it puts you in this ideology of a person who cares and is progressive, but I don't think it's ever been developed. I don't think people have thought about it in the long term and if you look at the consequences of how this is playing out in New York City, homicides are up by hundreds of percent, robberies, armed robberies , it's all good, it's not good that defunding the police has been horrible for New York City. The consequences have been exactly the opposite. Everyone was hoping they were right and that worries me here too, but Governor Abbott stepped in and said he's going to put an end to that, you know, there's talk about it.

By not giving it to the cities that do this they are not going to have access to property taxes and this is obviously there are no income taxes in Austin in the state of Texas, so the governor supposedly stepped in and is going to iron . this, so I hope it works and cooler heads prevail for me too. I'm with you training and I have more reverence for the work and I understand that they call them when they don't call them when it's good news, you know? My brother Gallo has a very interesting view, I think you know that gun control, um, and Texas is a great right to bear a state and a gun, a gun state, um, but he pulled out the samurai sword, how there was reverence for her. and I remember how we were raised, you got your toy gun and then you got your Daisy bomb and until you mastered that it was like not turning and every time you turned and even though it wasn't cocked if it was pointed at Someone, no, they took your gun away, you know what i mean, but first you had to master the daisy gun and then after years you moved up to the .22 and you had to master it and you had to make sure it was always unloaded and reloaded in case you have a reverence for it tool, there is a long kind of initiation bow before you can move on to a larger weapon, yes, we have lost the bow for that tool and the samurai sword is a good one.

For example, because there is a bow for you, there is a period of initiation to get to where you might have that right and I think that would be, you know, that's one of the places where I go to bed with the idea that it's too easy to get a gun sometimes that there should be that background check. which goes back to when we talked about police force background check training having reverence for the job understanding expectations understanding it's a high stress job can you handle it? Let's learn to deal with it because they have to call the audibles the moment our life is audible, yeah, and like we said, get rid of the ones that can't because it's hard work and hard jobs aren't for everyone and I believe that and that It is what punishes good police officers when someone does something horrible like the case of George Floyd.

All those good cops who would never think of doing that in their life are lumped into the same category as that guy and I think that's horrible, yeah. I agree, yeah, listen man, I enjoy talking to you, this is great, I really do and I wish you luck with your book and I love your movies and I wish you nothing but success and uh, let's get together and break bread someday . I'm looking forward to it Joe, thanks man, I enjoy talking to you and look forward to doing it in person. Let's do it brother, thank you, thank you, good luck with the book, bye.