- I have a question for you, this is off topic.
Is that a cage behind your head?
- Yeah.
- What lives in it?
- Oscar Nunez.
- Oscar!
- "Hey There, Human", with me Rainn Wilson.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Soul Pancake.
It's a company I co-created
and has been a big part of my life for the last 10 years.
I was thinking about today about
we have a hard time as a species I think,
living in dichotomies.
If I could create a Venn diagram,
and maybe I'll try and create a Venn diagram.
I'm not really very good at it,
but I see a notepad sitting here and maybe I have a Sharpie.
Yes, I have a Sharpie.
It would be that this time is equal parts, terrifying,
I mean, people are dying and some of the numbers
that you read about in little areas like New York
or Italy or Spain, it's very scary.
We're getting into the hundreds and thousands of mortalities
so it's not a joking matter at all.
It's it's equal parts, terrifying
and then it's also equal parts, like, connected.
Like I feel more connected
than I have previous, you know, in the months before this
'cause I'm reaching out more, I'm texting friends,
I'm connecting with people online a lot more.
I think disconnected is one maybe.
And then one more is
strange, funny.
So where they all meet up is in the middle, right here.
So it's, this is where we're living right now,
and this is hard for me and other people to process.
Connected, terrifying, disconnected,
and strange slash funny.
It's kind of funny.
There's been a lot of very funny memes going on
at the same time, so.
One of the things I think we struggle with as human beings
is living in a dichotomy, living in two things
that don't necessarily sync up,
in a space where we've never lived before,
and I think it's okay to allow for the fact that
this is terrifying and it's also funny.
It's both of those things.
If you're being funny,
it doesn't mean you're neglecting the terrifying
and if you're being terrified,
it doesn't mean you're neglected the funny.
And we're getting more connected,
look at this show we're doing right now,
look at how connected we all are.
And we're also really disconnected
'cause I can't hug people and we can't go to coffee shops
and we can't drop by and see our neighbors,
and we can't go to our church gatherings,
and there's probably more I could add to this list,
but for now, we'll just leave it at these four
that we're living here in a very strange time,
that's between strange/ funny, terrifying, connected,
and disconnected all at the same time.
That's how I feel.
And isn't that kind of,
isn't there kind of a life lesson in there about
the fact that life sometimes has all of these
dichotomous angles kind of inter blending and knocking up
into each other.
Sometimes you're at a funeral and you'll see something
that's the funniest thing you ever seen in your life.
Sometimes you're at a wedding
and you're the saddest you've ever felt in your life.
Like this is part of the human experience
and we have to accept that and embrace that.
But right now we're going to talk to Ms. Angela Kinsey.
And look who's here.
Can you believe it? - Hi!
- Hey Ang, how're you doing?
- Hi buddy, it's so good to see you.
- Hey, it's great to see you.
So you saw my little Venn diagram that I did Angela.
- I did.
- Terrifying, connected, disconnected, and strange and funny
at the time.
And we're here, and sometimes we go in between
all of those different feelings and others.
Do you have any experiences like that
or anything to share on this theme?
- Yeah, I mean, you know, I have three children
and they're 11, 11 and nine.
I'm also navigating this through their eyes
and trying to think about what their world is like.
It's hard because I feel like that I'm trying to keep things
not scary for them, but also things are scary.
That has been kind of interesting
because I want to be truthful to them.
I want them to know the stakes of
what's happening in the world
and how we need to be responsible,
but I also don't want them to live paralyzed by fear.
It is one of those things, Rainn.
It's like what you were saying where
you can be at a wedding
and it's a happy occasion and be sad,
or you can be somewhere where you're supposed to be sad
and you and your friend get tickled about something.
You know, all those emotions converge.
You don't stop having all the feelings you always have.
Your environmental life is changing,
but you are still you and you're still trying to process
all the information, and some days you're going to be scared
and some days you're gonna feel triumphant,
like you got this, and other days you're gonna laugh
because if you don't laugh, you'll cry.
- I think society kind of tells us
what we should be feeling.
You know, I've suffered a lot in my past
from anxiety and depression.
Something I've started writing about a little bit more
and something I wanna share more with people because
it's such a relevant topic today in young people,
the epidemic proportions of anxiety and depression
that are going on.
And I think there's a myriad causes for this,
but do you know what myriad means Angela?
- Are you being condescending?
- Yes.
- Well done.
There's several, there's several things that have
led to this for you, Rainn.
- Oh you're sharp as a tack, I love it!
So I think people get confused sometimes
because they feel like society tells you
what you should be feeling
and then you're feeling something different
and it doesn't compute
and I think social media doesn't help that.
I try and stay off of it a lot, personally.
I post things, but I try not to just spend hours
surfing on it.
But because I have Soul Pancake on the iPad,
I was looking at it a lot
and there were people writing poetry
and posting their poetry.
I was like, I should be writing poetry.
And there were people taking photographs of,
like birds in the spring.
I'm like, I should be taking photographs
of birds in the spring.
And there were people like doing crafts.
And then there were people working out,
people doing yoga, and I was like,
I should be doing it, I should be doing it.
- If that's what your social media was full of,
I would call you and be like, are you okay?
- You know that I have an inner hippie in me.
- I know that, you're crunchy.
I know you're crunchy.
- I'm a little crunchy.
I'm a very much, love, power, bringing people together,
and we all just get along, kumbaya.
There's a big kumbaya component to the old Dwight-ster.
- Hey, I love it, I love it.
- But it started with seeing all this stuff
and I was thinking I should be,
I should be doing all that.
That felt bad and I was like,
but you know, I'm doing enough.
I mean, I'm doing this show and I'm writing some projects
and I'm involved in some other things
and Soul Pancake, that's uplifting.
So I feel like, in my head I know I'm doing
what I need to be doing right now,
but then I felt really bad.
But for me, like one of the stories from my life was that
when I got out of acting school
and I was a professional actor
and I had a beautiful girlfriend, now my wife, at the time
and I had a great apartment in Brooklyn,
but I was really unhappy
even though everything that I thought in my head
I had always wanted, I had.
So it's really been a lifelong journey, like,
why do I feel unhappy even though I have all of these things
that I've wanted my whole life?
So a lot of times society,
our inner experience doesn't match up to
what our externals are.
You know what I mean?
- Yeah, a lot of time our dreams feel very big
and out of our control.
We don't get to make a lot of choices sometimes
in our careers.
It's other people, the director, the casting director,
the producers, and one way I quiet the noise
and I know this is very simple sounding,
but I try to sit and be still.
- Now, do you view that as being as different than
meditation or is it just, less formal form of meditation,
just being still?
Because that's a big component of meditation, yeah?
- Yeah, I just try to sit, you know,
I love a back porch,
I don't know if it's cause I'm Southern, but I love a porch
and I just try to sit on the porch for a few minutes,
and I just, in those moments,
try to have a moment of gratitude
and it can be as simple as,
oh, I'm so thankful that there's a really nice breeze
out today and it feels good going across my face
and I'm thankful for that breeze.
I'm thankful that I get to sit here and feel that breeze.
And-
- That's so wonderful, Angela.
Finding time to be still
and finding even tiny, simple moments of gratitude.
That's really, that's really great.
- Yeah, I think that helps me.
- You are a beautiful human being.
- Well, I love you so much, Rainn.
I'll come back anytime.
I'll come back.
- Do you want me to be on your stupid podcast?
- Yes, will you feel my stupid podcast with Jenna Fischer?
- Who?
- Jenna Fischer, you heard me.
- Doesn't ring a bell.
Yeah, yeah. - All right.
I love you. - Okay.
I love you too. - Bye.
- So long. - Bye.
- Okay, how was that?
What an asshole,
right?
See what I had to deal with for almost 10 years.
Remember what we talked about at the beginning.
We made this Venn diagram.
These are very confusing times.
We're connected, terrified, disconnected,
and strangely laughing at the same time.
That's kind of the space we're living in.
I hope we can just own all of these dichotomous,
contradictory feeling states
and just know that that's totally normal to be feeling
lots of different things at the same time
and having them swerve and veer from hour to hour.
So thanks so much for watching.
I love you all, so long.
♪ Hey there human, hey there human ♪