Latest / The Delicious Culture with Jon Francois / Sasquatch Is Delicious w/ Maxim Langstaff

Transcript

Sasquatch Is Delicious w/ Maxim Langstaff · The Delicious Culture with Jon Francois

0:00
People ask me, is Sasquatch real? And I say,
0:01
absolutely. It's absolutely real. I promise you,
0:04
it's real. Do you believe in Santa Claus? Do
0:06
you believe in Christmas and Santa Claus? Of
0:07
course you do. We spend over a billion dollars
0:10
a year in this country celebrating Santa Claus.
0:13
And everything is Santa Claus. Christmas, Santa
0:15
Claus, you know, the whole thing. So that's proof
0:18
perfect of what my argument, which is that we
0:20
believe what we believe. Now, either we're cuckoo
0:22
for Cocoa Puffs or we just make stuff up. So
0:26
the question is why? Hey, delishies, grab a plate
0:34
and taste the delicious culture. I'm your host,
0:35
John Francois. We are feasting on food, pop culture
0:38
and lifestyle with Emmy and Grammy nominated
0:40
writer and producer and author of the book Saskette,
0:44
Maxim Langstaff. Hi, Max. Hey, how are you? Almost
0:48
a hundred degrees. Where are you located? North
0:49
Carolina. North Carolina, yeah. This time of
0:52
year, North Carolina, and I guess the entire
0:54
South is not a pleasant place to be. I know you
0:56
guys have. It is, it is. And we've had, it's
0:59
been over a hundred degrees for weeks. It's terrible.
1:01
Yeah. Um, so I, I mean, I'm, I'm based here in
1:05
Vermont and. Oh right, whereabouts? Whereabouts?
1:09
I went to school in Vermont. Oh, wonderful. So
1:12
right now I'm in Richford with my wife and our
1:15
five dogs and two cats. Where did you go to school?
1:18
I went to the Putney School in Vermont. Do you
1:20
know what that is in Putney, Vermont? It's a
1:21
high school. Yeah, I know Vermont intimately.
1:26
I know it well. I got a lot of family up there.
1:28
It's the best state in the union, I think. Yeah.
1:31
All right. Well, that's wonderful to hear. Yeah,
1:33
it is a wonderful state to live in. It looks
1:36
like Putney is about three hours away from where
1:38
I am in Richford. So it might be like down in
1:41
the southern part. It's about eight miles north
1:43
of Brattleboro. Oh, okay. Yeah. So you're down
1:46
in the southern part of the state. Yeah. Yeah.
1:51
uh not why we're rejection now it's uh i can't
1:53
remember um Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So you're definitely
1:56
in Southern Vermont. I have a therapist located
1:59
in Brattleboro. Great city. I've been there a
2:02
few times. So you studied what in Vermont? What
2:06
did you go to school for? I went to school. I
2:07
went to the Putney School, which is a rural sort
2:10
of farm school, where a lot of people who go
2:13
there, students are there. It's a very actively
2:16
creative community. So the arts are treated with
2:21
the same sort of respect to science and things
2:23
like that. So it's a full academic course load
2:28
if you take something in the arts. So it could
2:30
be anything from weaving to acting, theater,
2:33
it could be music, whatever you want. They treat
2:37
them not as extracurricular activities, but as
2:39
core parts of the curriculum. Is that what you
2:41
did, is a mixture of weaving and acting and music,
2:43
or did you do something else there? I did a lot
2:45
of music and a lot of theater, yeah. That's where
2:47
I really learned. It is interesting because as
2:50
a young person, When I was 13 or 14 years old
2:55
entering high school, I was a mess. Tell me more.
3:01
I didn't know who I was or what I was. I was
3:04
shy and totally insecure, came from a marginal
3:09
and dysfunctional situation home. It was my acting
3:14
classes that really, got me in touch with me
3:18
and who I am and what I'm all about. And it really,
3:22
I don't think anything more single, more profound
3:24
thing happened to me than during those years
3:26
there, because it is treated on a conservatory
3:28
level. And it changed me as a person, made me
3:33
the man I became. I love that. And I can feel
3:36
the same way as an actor as well. I'm 34. I've
3:40
been acting since... sophomore year of high school.
3:43
So that's been 20 years. And when I first got
3:47
into acting, not only did I do it because I just
3:50
loved what I was seeing in television and film,
3:52
but also I wanted to subconsciously find a way
3:58
to be confident in myself confident in what I
4:01
present. And I knew that myself as a human being
4:03
at that time, I was very socially awkward and
4:06
just didn't know how to, you know, have articulate
4:09
thoughts and carry an articulate conversation.
4:12
So acting was sort of my gateway, pretending
4:15
to be other people was sort of my gateway into
4:18
what I've done with radio, what I've done with
4:21
podcasting, which is being able to entertain,
4:24
carry a conversation, have a personality as myself.
4:27
So I think you and I connect. Yeah, I mean, that's
4:29
terrific. I'll tell you what, my book, Susket
4:32
is being currently being sort of explored for
4:35
a streaming series right now. And if you stay
4:39
in touch with me or whatever, send me an email,
4:41
directly an email. There's a role for you. Oh,
4:45
there is? I can tell already there's a role that
4:48
you'd be perfect for. Well, first of all, for
4:51
myself and for our audience, explain what the
4:54
book Saskette is about. Well, that's a good question.
4:56
I keep asking myself that, you know, because,
4:58
you know, as a writer. You know when you're writing
5:02
nonfiction on you have an ambition you want to
5:05
write something you want to write something about
5:07
this and you're trying to convince people of
5:08
something whether it's you have a good recipe
5:10
for cooking or whether it's a political statement
5:14
or whether it's a self help book or you know
5:16
whatever it is. There's an ambition attached
5:19
to that, an objective. The creative process for
5:24
a book of fiction, a novel, is very, very different.
5:27
Obviously, you bring to bear your writing craft
5:31
and your writing skills. You have to, obviously.
5:33
That's a given. But it's a process of more of
5:36
an unfolding and allowingness. So what happens
5:39
is, You know, as an actor, for example, as an
5:43
example, when you take on a role, you know, you
5:49
can't enter that role as this is the role, and
5:52
this is what it is, and this is how it's done.
5:54
It's going to be done your way. No, your hamlet's
5:56
going to be different from my hamlet. It's what
5:58
it is. And you don't have to work it. You don't
5:59
have to just be you. You're not, but you know
6:02
what I'm saying. But so when you're writing a
6:04
book, a novel, for me, I just fell in love with
6:07
the process. And, you know, I could have written
6:09
a 3000 page novel, but I was forced to stop at
6:12
676 pages. There you go. But I think that it's
6:16
it's thank God for a brilliant editor. But it's,
6:20
you know, people have this tendency to think,
6:22
well, you know, I have to when I'm inspired to
6:25
do something, I'm going to go do it. That's not
6:27
how life works. And that's not how certainly
6:29
the creative process works. It's the process
6:31
itself. provides the inspiration. You can't wait
6:35
to be inspired and then start something. Just
6:38
start it. Just start where you are. Exactly.
6:40
There's no such thing as the beginning. You just
6:42
start where you are and through the process.
6:44
When you're writing a book of fiction, a novel,
6:48
it's a very powerful thing to do actually because
6:50
you have control over the life and death of your
6:52
characters and where they go and what they do
6:54
and the reader. It's really quite remarkable.
6:57
To the extent to which you allow your imagination
6:59
and you allow your life experiences, authentic
7:03
experience to be filtered through the characters
7:05
and what the book is, is a degree to which the
7:08
book's going to be any good. Suscat for me began
7:10
in a cabin in Northern Maine. I was by myself
7:13
with my dog. I had an outhouse. I didn't have
7:16
any running water. It was the quietest time of
7:23
my life, I think, in many respects. And I didn't
7:25
start the book with an intention, with an ambition.
7:28
I just started to write some essays because I
7:30
had some time and some thoughts were coming into
7:32
my head. And so it sort of came through me and
7:35
I captured them. And that was that. And then
7:37
it went on for over a year. And then I decided
7:41
to take my dog across the country, and we were
7:43
going to go throw him in the car, and he and
7:46
I, me and my dog, were going to head out across
7:49
the country. His name was Kimo, and he's a character
7:51
in the book. I'm beginning to come to the conclusion
7:53
there's no such thing as fiction, but that's
7:55
another conversation. But then we went everywhere.
8:00
We went all the way across the country, through
8:01
the Rocky Mountains, and ended up in California.
8:04
Through that whole process, I began, these things
8:07
began to percolate. I was writing and writing
8:09
and got to California and I was walking with
8:12
the dog one day in the Santa Monica mountains
8:14
we were hiking. And this line came to me and
8:16
the line was, sometimes the truth is best left
8:19
unknown. Really? And I thought, wow, what's that?
8:24
Because it's too painful to hear? Since figured
8:27
it out. What? Because it's too painful to hear?
8:29
Is that the meaning behind that line? The truth
8:31
is too painful to hear? That's why it's best
8:33
left unknown? No, not necessarily. I don't think
8:35
so. For me, sometimes the truth is best left
8:37
unknown. It came from some personal experience
8:40
of mine where somebody had done something absolutely
8:44
horrible to me. Horrible. I mean, extraordinarily
8:48
illegal, everything. And yet for me to You know,
8:53
reaction is, you think is, well, I have to either
8:57
get back at them or I have to stop them or I
8:58
have to do something or whatever it was, sue
9:00
them, whatever it is people do. Right. And I
9:03
thought. I made a decision, actually my wife
9:07
and I made the decision that I didn't want to
9:09
be the kind of person that person was. And I
9:12
realized that if the truth came out of what he
9:14
had done to me, then it would destroy his family.
9:17
It would destroy his role in the relationship
9:19
with his children and his wife when they found
9:22
out what he was really all about. So I chose
9:26
not to pursue anything or to do something. And
9:29
it was very damaging to me personally and professionally.
9:33
I suddenly realized that, you know, I don't believe
9:37
in, what's the word, secrets. I think secrets
9:43
are bad juju. But I do think that sometimes the
9:47
truth is best left unknown. In other words, I
9:49
know what happened. God knows what happened,
9:51
quite frankly. And he knows what happened. His
9:57
ability to process it appropriately is none of
9:59
my business. Are you able to give details or
10:06
would you rather not share that? I can't really
10:08
give details. No, it wouldn't actually help.
10:13
But I think that the thing that's interesting
10:14
about all of this is that we all in life, I think,
10:19
certainly me, we all have very bad moments, very
10:22
dark places we land. at some point somewhere,
10:26
something other happens to us or we made a bad
10:28
choice, you know, went off on the wrong road
10:31
there, whatever it is for everybody in life.
10:34
I mean, life is hard. It's a contact sport. I
10:36
mean, it's not, it's not sort of like we have
10:39
these, these pablamy ideas of, well, I deserve
10:43
to be happy. No, you don't deserve to be happy.
10:46
And by the way, life is not fair. And if your
10:48
parents told you life should be fair or was fair
10:50
when you were a kid, they were lying. That was
10:52
the first lie. Life is not fair. Life just is.
10:55
And you get into these dark places. And I find,
10:58
for me, the way I handle it, and it's taken me
11:01
much of my life to get there. And this little
11:05
kid in Vermont was recognizing that it won't
11:07
last forever. That wherever you are, However
11:10
bad it is in that moment. It will not be that
11:13
way in the next moment and the next moment and
11:16
the next moment So, I mean it was golden rule
11:19
if you know if you're really a big big big giant
11:21
hole stop digging, you know It's something it
11:25
took me a long time to learn. I seem to have
11:27
a gift for digging. What can I say? but I think
11:30
so, you know you just You know, you realize that
11:35
everybody has a story. This goes back to the
11:37
book. And so everybody has a story. You think
11:41
your situation is, is it as worse as bad? Well,
11:44
of course it's bad because it, or it's good because
11:46
it's your situation. You know, we're all inherently
11:49
selfish because we are, we have to be, but everybody
11:53
has a story. Human beings don't operate from
11:56
facts. We operate from belief. We believe certain
11:58
things, and that's how we act on our beliefs.
12:02
That's why we're in the holes we're in. But I
12:04
think that, so stop digging. I think, seriously.
12:09
So, Susquat then evolved as a book. And then,
12:14
you know, the Susquatch element of it came in.
12:16
Susquat is the original Indian term for Susquatch,
12:19
which then most people then came to know as Bigfoot.
12:22
And Susquatch was just an Anglo, Anglo's, what's
12:25
the word? Anglo -Saxon? God, I can't believe
12:32
I'm having trouble with his words. That's okay.
12:34
An anglicized version of Suscat by a reporter
12:37
in the 1920s, I think it was. But what's interesting,
12:41
we'll veer off here into left field for a second.
12:43
Don't mind me, pit stop. The word Bigfoot didn't
12:48
come into the vernacular. There was no such thing
12:50
as a Bigfoot until 1958, and it was connected
12:54
to a hoax. and yet it went out across the world
12:56
and the media, and we all knew it was Bigfoot.
12:58
So the thing that everybody talks about Bigfoot
13:01
is based on a hoax. And I never quite understood
13:03
the story. Can you explain the whole Bigfoot
13:05
hoax to me? Well, what happened was, it's in
13:08
the book, and I take the reader through the characters
13:12
in detail, and they're doing their own research.
13:14
But there was a man had a road building crew
13:18
in the Pacific Northwest in Northern California.
13:23
He was under contract with somebody, the state,
13:27
I don't know who, to build this road through
13:29
a wilderness area for loggers to get to the old
13:31
growth timber. And it was unstable ground and
13:34
they were not succeeding and they were losing,
13:37
they couldn't do it and they were losing money
13:39
big time. So the one clause in the contract was,
13:43
well, if there's an act of God or something out
13:45
of their control that happens, then they won't
13:48
be held liable or responsible for it. and they
13:50
can get out of the contract. So a lot of the
13:52
people in working for them were some of these
13:55
poor rural people and mountain people. And many
13:58
of them were Indians that came off the local
13:59
reservations. And so he had heard these stories
14:03
of the local Indians talking about this creature.
14:10
this sort of giant creature out there. So he
14:13
thought, well, what I'll do is I'll make some
14:15
fake footprints, because he knew a lot of his
14:17
workers who worked up there believed this creature
14:19
existed. And if he put a bunch of footprints
14:22
around, they'd all get frightened away. And they
14:24
were, they were frightened away. And we can't
14:28
discover it as a hoax. Before it was discovered
14:30
as a hoax, the local newspaper man, they were
14:34
having trouble with their local newspaper and
14:35
getting good readership. So he thought, well,
14:37
you know, I could tell this story and go on to
14:39
this story. This is a great story. You know,
14:40
there's a monster out in the woods and look at
14:42
all the footprints around the work sites and
14:44
all this stuff. And anyway, they got out of their
14:47
contract. So it worked perfectly. The newspaper
14:49
got their readership jumped, which was perfect
14:52
for them. Then they got a little bit out of hand
14:53
because it was picked up by the national media
14:55
and it went around the world really fast. And
14:57
that's how we all got to Bigfoot. But When you
15:00
go back to the history of this phenomenon, there's
15:03
two sides to it. One is, the question is, is
15:06
there a real biological creature out there? Is
15:08
there a creature called Sasquatch out there in
15:11
the wilderness? And when I started the book,
15:14
I thought, oh, this is silly. Of course, there's
15:17
no creature there. Well, as I got to do my research,
15:21
excuse me, and all the scientific articles, I
15:23
began to think, I think it's easier to prove
15:25
that it's real than it's a hoax. It's harder
15:28
to prove that it's a hoax. What do I mean by
15:30
that? If you want to believe that sasquatch is
15:32
a hoax, you got to believe that there's some
15:34
guy or somebody out there in the wilderness the
15:37
last three or four hundred years dressing up
15:39
in a monkey outfit, hoping somebody is going
15:41
to swing by and see them. Well, first of all,
15:44
if you're way out there and you're waiting for
15:45
someone to show up, the person who's likely to
15:47
show up is a hunter. Oops. I mean, there's no
15:51
it's just. And then if you think that the. all
15:54
these stories that go back over a thousand years
15:56
are fake then you got to believe there's a conspiracy
15:58
which has probably cost hundreds of billions
16:01
of dollars to sustain and no one's ever ever
16:03
stepped forward and said oh yeah we're just kidding
16:04
so it's it's a very very um enigmatic question
16:08
enigmatic thing but i found through my research
16:11
so is is bigfoot or susquatch real um i don't
16:15
know but i there's certainly plausible evidence
16:17
to suggest so and just so you know the difference
16:21
between bigfoot and susquatch is bigfoot's like
16:24
Um a teddy bear to a bear, right? We've created
16:27
to you know, we got harry and the hendersons.
16:29
We got all this stuff. Whatever. We love it There's
16:31
so many tv shows. This is everything all over
16:33
the place Well, um We've made it what it is what
16:38
human beings do we've made it what we needed
16:39
to be for us regardless of whatever So so going
16:42
back to the the whole sesquatch thing is is it
16:45
um more interesting to me? This if it's not real
16:49
if we made it up people ask me is sasquatch real
16:52
I say absolutely. It's absolutely real. I Promise
16:55
you it's real. How do you know that max? How
16:57
can you say that? It's easy Do you believe in
16:59
Santa? Do you believe in Christmas and Santa
17:01
Claus? Of course you do You got to believe in
17:03
Santa Claus. You don't believe in Santa Claus.
17:04
You got to ask yourself. We spend over a billion
17:07
dollars a year in this country celebrating Santa
17:10
Claus, and everything is Santa Claus, Christmas,
17:13
Santa Claus, you know, the whole thing. So that's
17:15
proof perfect of my argument, which is that we
17:17
believe what we believe. Now, either we're cuckoo
17:20
for Cocoa Puffs, or we just make stuff up. So
17:23
the question is why? Why? And that's interesting.
17:27
What is it about Sasquatch, regardless of whether
17:29
it's real or not, that it's so important to us.
17:32
It's on mugs, it's on surfboards, it's on t -shirts,
17:35
hats, gloves, everything, articles, TV, it's
17:38
all over the place. Why? Why a big, giant, seven
17:42
-foot hairy man? Why is that even the porn industry
17:45
gets excited about it? I mean, I don't understand.
17:48
Oh, don't you? Oh, my God. It's yeah. Anyway,
17:53
a long story. I had a brick wall in my research.
17:55
I'm like, this is no no. What's that? Oh, my
17:59
God. Stop! So the question is, what is it about
18:04
us as human beings? Because we're great storytellers.
18:07
This is what we do. Our reality is based on the
18:09
stories we tell ourselves. So the book itself
18:12
is about a journey of a woman. It was very important
18:14
to me that she be a woman. The lead character
18:17
protagonist and she's it's like John Lennon said,
18:20
you know life is what happens to us while we're
18:22
busy making other plans and so She's living her
18:26
life. She's living in just across the border
18:28
from you in New Hampshire and she's a veterinarian
18:31
and all of a sudden she gets thrust in onto this
18:33
journey against her will and So it's really her
18:38
story and her journey and her life and what happens
18:41
to her. And it's just got a lot of historical
18:44
fiction elements to human beings and people who
18:46
are real. And then all my fictional characters
18:49
are going on this journey. And it's a journey
18:52
for her really of self discovery and realizing
18:55
she's not the person she thought she was and
18:57
learning to, you know, and then again, what is
19:01
some of her worst most unpleasant moments and
19:03
she loses her career and everything like that.
19:06
She meets the man of her dreams. I mean, good
19:08
things come in, you know, sometimes you have
19:10
to lose something for something else to come
19:12
in. And so there's that element goes on in it.
19:15
And it's for people who it's a really it's an
19:17
essay, if I were for me as a writer on our relationship
19:21
to nature and conservation and how we need to
19:24
rethink how the air we breathe, the water we
19:29
drink, the food we eat, the shelter that we have,
19:33
all comes from nature and we should completely
19:35
take it for granted. Can you expand more about
19:40
your work with wildlife conservation? Because
19:43
I know you produced the wildlife concert. Why
19:48
does wildlife conservation matter to you? I know
19:50
it sounds like a stupid question, but what does
19:52
it mean to you? It's always the stupid questions
19:56
that are the hardest. I just want you to know
19:58
that. That might be a bad thing, I'm sorry. That
20:01
was not a great introduction to question, but
20:03
I'll go with it. I'm not sure I can answer that
20:06
and I can say a part of me, there's a quality
20:08
of authenticity to animals, a quality of, you
20:12
know, you can't take a bad photograph of an animal.
20:16
any photograph this is a great example you take
20:18
a picture of an animal there's a quality that
20:20
comes through that's so authentic so real we
20:22
get it in our movie stars and things like that
20:24
too this is a quality of charisma what is that
20:26
charisma it's a quality of authenticity it's
20:29
a quality of being present it's a quality most
20:32
human beings you take pictures of nail looks
20:34
so great because there's you can just tell they're
20:36
just They lack that sort of immediacy. And I
20:41
think for me, I grew up as a child, spent a lot
20:45
of time in the Northeast, in the North Maine
20:48
woods, places like that, Northern New Hampshire,
20:50
and Vermont. And I just have always been drawn
20:55
to it. It's a very powerful spiritual connection
20:58
for me. You know, if I want to go to church,
21:00
I go into the woods. That's what it is. Relating
21:04
to something and connecting, it allows me to
21:07
connect to everything in the world. I was working
21:12
in New York as a writer and actor, and I got
21:17
a phone call one day from the Wildlife Conservation
21:20
Society saying that somebody had suggested that
21:21
I might be interested in... coming to work for
21:23
them. And I said, no, absolutely not. Why would
21:26
I want to do that? I'm doing this. And then I
21:28
did my homework. And I started to look at who
21:30
these people were. I didn't know who the Wildlife
21:33
Conservation Society was. And I started to look
21:35
at who these scientists were. And they were all
21:37
kind of like Jane Goodall. They were all really
21:39
big, important people doing globally important
21:42
work very quietly. And I thought, I can't walk
21:46
away from an opportunity to work with these kinds
21:48
of people. And again, this is that that wonderful
21:51
thing where I didn't know where this was gonna
21:53
lead me where what I was doing frankly was probably
21:55
a dead end I didn't realize the time but so I
21:58
did a complete left turn and Said sure and I
22:04
signed up to work with them. And so I worked
22:06
with these scientists and developing things.
22:08
And we got into that working on tigers and all
22:11
kinds of creatures that, you know, there are
22:13
more tigers in captivity at game farms that people
22:16
can get a gun and go out after having a gin and
22:19
tonic and shoot a tiger in a game farm in Texas.
22:22
There are more tigers in captivity in game farms
22:24
than there are in the entire planet in the wild.
22:28
I mean, there's a, I mean, it's, I can't, and
22:31
I can't even begin to go on to the statistics
22:34
of what's going on, how bad it is. Since the
22:37
1970s, 70 % of all the wildlife on this planet
22:42
have gone extinct. We don't notice it yet. We
22:44
don't notice it yet, but since the 1970s, 70%.
22:48
Can I ask what the idea behind a game farm is
22:51
to just go back to that for a second? A game
22:53
farm? Yeah, they're out there in Texas. It's
22:55
one of my least favorite places. They have these
22:59
game farms. You can pay $10 ,000 and they'll
23:02
hand you a gun and you can go out there. You
23:05
could be infirm and not able to walk. You could
23:08
sit in a chair and have a cocktail from the deck
23:11
of whatever it is and they just shoot a tiger.
23:14
That sounds absolutely cruel. And they have other
23:18
animals you can shoot too. I mean, whatever you
23:20
want, whatever you can pay for. I mean, you know.
23:22
Like I've heard like, I mean, you know, going
23:23
back to, you know, us connecting with the Northern
23:26
New England, Vermont, Maine culture, like deer
23:30
hunting, obviously very common. And, you know,
23:35
that hunting, I understand like the aspect of
23:38
it used for food, for survival. It goes back
23:41
to the caveman days almost. Um, but the idea
23:45
of just having a cocktail and just shooting a
23:49
living thing for fun, as if you're like having
23:51
a cocktail and watching a dinner theater production
23:54
or a movie. It's just, okay. So let's, let's
23:56
let you, you, you touched upon something I think
23:58
is very important and, um, I'm going to, um,
24:01
challenge you on this one. Sure. Um, and, um,
24:04
because I think that your, your perspective is
24:06
pretty much the perspective of everybody's and
24:08
I don't buy it. I'll tell you why. I have a degree
24:11
in anthropology, socio -cultural anthropology.
24:15
What you do in your training as an anthropologist
24:17
is you learn to see through the third eye. In
24:19
other words, it's your view, it's my view, and
24:21
then there's the facts. What's really happening
24:23
here? What's going on here? You look down. Let's
24:26
take a look at hunting for one quick second.
24:28
I'm going to get into real trouble here. Here
24:30
we go. Why not? I'm short. Someone has to speak
24:32
up. Think about it in the big, big picture. We
24:35
shoot these animals, we cut off their heads and
24:38
we stick them on the walls of our living room.
24:41
Yeah, I don't like it. What's that? OK, for starters,
24:44
what's that? And by the way, we spend thousands
24:47
and thousands of dollars to get those heads stuffed
24:50
and stuck on our walls. First of all, imagine
24:52
if we did that to other human beings. Oh, I got
24:55
Uncle Bill up there in the study, you know, on
24:57
the wall there. That's Uncle Bill. Yeah, he died
24:59
last year. We stuffed him up and put him on the
25:01
wall. I mean, it's how big a difference is that?
25:03
OK, then it takes. OK, second, if you have this
25:06
in my book, I want to go hunt a moose. You know,
25:09
they have moose hunting. I don't have it in Vermont
25:11
anymore. They have it. Maybe. Right. Or deer,
25:14
whatever. OK, I have to do it because I want
25:18
it for the meat. Right. For the for the meat.
25:20
Uh huh. Really? Yeah, because it's much more
25:23
affordable. It's not more affordable. It's much
25:24
more expensive. So. Right. I'm going to go out
25:27
and shoot a deer. Okay. I have to get the truck.
25:29
I've got to get the thing to cart the deer. Once
25:30
I, once I get it, I got to go pay for the guns
25:33
that cost thousands of dollars. Um, got to get
25:35
the deer stuff and all that, all the stuff that
25:37
goes with it. I could get the clothing cause
25:38
I'm going to be cold as hell out there. At the
25:40
end of the day, you go into the supermarket and
25:43
get yourself some, uh, ground truck, right? Um,
25:46
it's going to cost you whatever it is. If you
25:48
would be equivalent in the deer that you just
25:50
got that you have in your fridge, by the way,
25:51
you have to pay a butcher to butcher it for you.
25:55
Um, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I need to get
25:56
the licenses to do all this. Your piece of meat
25:59
just cost you thousands of dollars. It's the
26:02
most expensive thing you could possibly eat.
26:04
There's not a piece of filet mignon out there
26:06
that can compete with the cost of your deer that
26:10
you shot. Now, um, we have a food system in this
26:13
country to feed us and we raise animals for food
26:17
and we have that system in place. So why do we
26:19
need to go shoot wild animals? Why do we need
26:21
to do that? yeah i agree it's bizarre to me so
26:24
this idea that's always arguments is put forward
26:27
well you know it's cheaper for me and i can get
26:29
the meat no it's not cheaper for you by the way
26:30
that f -350 pickup truck that you had to buy
26:33
so you can go off off -roading into the woods
26:35
and it just it's it's it's intellectually disingenuous
26:39
and that there but this goes back to the thing
26:42
we're talking about before which is We don't
26:44
operate from these facts and anything in life.
26:47
We operate from what we believe in. We believe
26:48
this, you know, and frankly, hunting is a multi
26:51
-billion dollar industry that supports a lot
26:53
of these small towns in northern New England.
26:55
It is. They're addicted to it. We're addicted
26:57
to it. And this idea, of course, that, you know,
27:01
these fish and wildlife agencies are protecting
27:04
fish and wildlife. No, they're not. They're regulating
27:07
hunting. They're law enforcement institutions,
27:09
you know, and they say, oh, well, there are so
27:12
many blah, blah, blah bears in Vermont. Really
27:15
would somebody go out there and count them. Really?
27:17
I mean, we tell ourselves this stuff. And we
27:21
believe it and we take it as fact. So we have
27:23
a belief we turn into a fact. This is what human
27:25
beings do. This going back to what I'm doing.
27:27
Why I think storytelling is so important because
27:30
the story we do tell ourselves since we were
27:32
not going to change that we operate that way.
27:34
It's important that they're nutritious stories.
27:36
They're good stories. They're stories that matter.
27:39
They're stories that can make a difference. I
27:40
mean, to me, it's the difference between, you
27:43
know, what kind of TV shows are you watching?
27:44
What kind of food are you eating? You know, it's
27:47
all that. You know, it's amazing. You don't go
27:51
into a supermarket and buy food. I know food
27:53
is a part of your podcast. Yeah, it's part of
27:56
it. Yeah, yeah. I just want to say I don't dispute
27:58
the inhumanity of hunting. I don't like it. I
28:01
would never do it. And actually the cheaper meat
28:03
opinion because I don't know anything about hunting.
28:06
I've never heard of that. So that's interesting
28:07
that hunters have said that. It's very expensive.
28:09
It's very expensive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You want
28:12
to put a rifle cost thousands of dollars. Right,
28:15
right, right. I guess while I... don't like or
28:19
get hunting, definitely don't like people posting
28:21
pictures of it, it's just very odd. At the same
28:23
time, I know how passionate Second Amendment
28:27
rights are in this country and also - Do you
28:29
know there's nothing in the Second Amendment
28:31
that gives you a right to carry a gun? It's a
28:33
lie. It's another belief. It's a lie. Look at
28:35
the Second Amendment. It's connected to - Your
28:38
arms and carrying guns isn't the same thing?
28:39
But connected to militia. In other words, you
28:42
can have a gun if kicked on militia when they,
28:44
when the, you know, talk about the original,
28:45
the original list on our Supreme Court, right?
28:48
So, um, which is, you know, interpret these,
28:50
the constitution based on what the framers intended.
28:55
Well, when the framers intended, first of all,
28:57
that we didn't have AR 15s. Okay. We didn't have
28:59
them in those days. We had single musket guns
29:01
with a single bullet. You stick in there. It
29:03
was smoke. was not even smokeless gunpowder.
29:06
You shoot one bullet, you gotta take it out,
29:08
you gotta load it up. Okay, okay, you could have
29:10
that. Did they think that everyone should be
29:12
going around with an automatic weapon that can
29:14
fire, you know, hundreds of bullets in a matter
29:16
of seconds? I don't think so. The second thing
29:19
is, in the Constitution, the Second Amendment,
29:21
the right to bear arms is connected to a militia.
29:24
Well, a militia in a time period in which the
29:26
Constitution was written is what we call today
29:29
the National Guard. So if you remember... Not
29:33
the average citizen. Doesn't apply to the average
29:34
Joe Blow. And it doesn't apply to, you know,
29:37
it doesn't take a constitutional scholar to appreciate
29:42
that allowing mentally retarded people to have
29:44
guns is probably not a good idea. Right. Not
29:47
a good idea. And we just, we allowed that, that
29:49
just got passed. So the whole gun thing is, again,
29:54
intellectually dishonest and has been for years,
29:56
but it's so now embedded, our beliefs are so
29:59
embedded. We believe the second amendment gives
30:01
us absolutely carte blanche. And even right after
30:04
our constitutional scholars and judges, it's
30:08
unfortunate, but it's what we have and it's how
30:12
we live today. But, you know, gun violence is
30:17
the way children is the highest single source
30:20
of childhood death in this country. It was with
30:22
guns. So what are we doing? What are we doing?
30:25
That's a good question. I'm not even radical.
30:27
I'm not even a radical. I just, I do try to discern
30:32
the difference between beliefs, including my
30:34
own biases, things like that, from facts. So
30:36
I have a particular belief about shooting wild
30:40
animals. You know, a moose has got more biomass
30:43
than you and I do. Who gives us that right? I
30:46
mean, it's, and then we'd go to church, talk
30:49
about how we're in charge. This is who we are.
30:58
It goes back to storytelling, which is, if you
31:01
are a creative person, you are a storyteller,
31:03
and you as an actor, if you get on the stage,
31:05
you're effectively a storyteller. I think it's
31:09
important that you try to tell stories that are
31:13
insightful. I always think for all my work, two
31:15
things that I, my mantra, two things that I have.
31:18
One is, you know, I want my work to be an evergreen.
31:25
What that means is I'm not interested in following
31:27
the latest trend. I'm not interested in writing
31:30
the next cool thing or being convinced that I've
31:32
got them as cool as cutting edge. I don't know.
31:34
Who cares? I don't want to reach. this, oh, we're
31:36
going to reach that group of people. I've got
31:37
to do something that's going to reach them. I
31:39
don't want to reach them. I want to reach us.
31:42
I want to reach all of us. And so I think we
31:44
have a lot more in common as human beings than
31:47
we have that are not in common. And I think we,
31:49
you know, I can tell you right now, my next door
31:53
neighbor's political views are diametrically
31:55
opposed to mine. I mean, I might not even, it's
31:57
not even close. I mean, you couldn't have a conversation
31:59
if you started a political conversation with
32:01
that person. But I've worked with people in my
32:03
life who I love. dear, dear people, and they're
32:06
wonderful people. So you just don't do that.
32:12
But I think that it doesn't make you a bad person
32:14
if somebody disagrees with you. The way we all
32:17
get on the same page, we all get to be telling
32:19
the same story because we're all on the same
32:22
journey. There's only one place we're all headed,
32:24
so just can't deny that one. So how are you going
32:28
to get there? How do you want that journey to
32:30
be for you and everyone else? I don't know how
32:34
old you are, but I'm only 24. Rigorous honesty.
32:41
In the 1970s, the big mantra that teenagers were
32:45
feeling and young people were feeling was we
32:48
became referred to as the me generation. Where
32:51
do I fit in? What do I do? We're getting a little
32:53
bit of that now with the transgender community,
32:55
things like that. But all this stuff about me,
32:58
me, me, me, me. What's in it for me? What am
33:00
I going to get? How do I fit? What's gonna happen?
33:04
And my grandmother sat me down one day, she infuriated
33:07
her. She says, Max, stop it. I said, what? And
33:12
she said, if you wanna know who you are, if you
33:14
wanna know where you fit in, you wanna have a
33:17
meaningful life and be happy, you need to get
33:21
yourself involved in something more important
33:24
than you. Yeah, something bigger than you. That's
33:26
part of the magic of being a father. I'm sure
33:28
you know that. I mean, your children are more
33:30
important to you than you. I mean, for you. I'm
33:32
not a father, but thank you. Well, you're not.
33:35
Okay. I would like to be, but not yet. Hopefully,
33:38
you practice a lot. But anyway, that's another
33:40
thing. We are. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go.
33:42
So I think, you know, that's the cycle. And for
33:49
me, in terms of my work, I want anything I do
33:54
creatively to give people a little bit of joy.
33:56
and a little bit of joy and maybe just a little
33:59
sprinkle of insight, something to make it so
34:01
it's nutritious. So it's not. So for me, my book,
34:04
Saskette, for example, I mean, look, I love reading
34:07
great literature. I do. And I can give you all
34:10
kinds of snobby things. So we can talk about
34:12
Shakespeare and Herman Melville till the cows
34:14
come home, which is a very, very appropriate
34:16
given you're in Vermont. But anyway, a lot of
34:19
cows. But the the. I also like reading Clancy
34:26
and Ludlum and all those, you know, because you
34:29
pick up a Robert Ludlum book, right? For example,
34:32
and you know, it's thick. It's a 500 page book,
34:34
whatever. And it was so fat paperbacks, you know,
34:37
that you take down to the beach or wherever you're
34:39
hanging out, you know, and you can't stop reading
34:42
it. I mean, it's addicting. His craft and dialogue
34:46
and all that kind of stuff is. spectacular and
34:49
you literally you I go and I'll stop eating you
34:52
know I won't go to bed at three o 'clock in the
34:54
morning I'll be reading the book and it's wonderful
34:56
and you can get through this huge long book in
34:58
like three days and it's done you finish the
35:02
book and that was great great book and then three
35:06
days after that you can't remember what it was
35:08
about In other words, there's no nutrition there.
35:11
It doesn't leave you with anything. It's just
35:14
well -crafted hyper -entertainment. I'm not saying
35:18
there's anything wrong with that, but that's
35:20
not what I do. I want to have those elements,
35:24
but it's got to have some value proposition above
35:28
stimulating people. That's the kind of describing
35:32
it. Anyway, all right, I'm done talking. I wanted
35:40
to go back to, you had mentioned the essays you
35:43
were writing when you were with your dog. Can
35:47
you expand upon that? What kind of essays are
35:49
we talking about? Well, I wrote one essay, two
35:52
page essay on love, what is love? And it was
35:54
funny. I didn't know where, I didn't realize
35:56
I could be funny, but I was. And I wrote the
36:00
prologue. of what became the book, Suscat, which
36:04
you can get everywhere now on Amazon, et cetera.
36:07
The prologue in that book was an essay. It was
36:09
not connected to the book. And I attached it
36:12
to the book late in the game. I thought, oh,
36:14
that thing I wrote two years ago or whatever
36:16
it was, and it fit. So this is what the whole
36:19
thing, when I talk about allowing this, did I
36:22
write that prologue or that essay with the intention
36:26
that it would be a prologue to a book, you know,
36:27
that kind of I'm in control and this is what
36:30
I'm going to do kind of thing. No, I just allowed,
36:33
I wrote it and it showed up when it needed to
36:37
show up the way it needed to show up. So there's
36:38
quality of faith that you have to engage in if
36:41
you're doing creative work, you know that. And
36:44
there's a quality of allowingness. And so that's
36:48
an example of that. I wrote a whole bunch of
36:51
stuff about my dog. Kimo who then became a character
36:55
in the book, a real character in the book, not
36:57
just a pet, but he's actually a character in
36:59
the book. I described him in the book, but I
37:05
pulled from the essay that I had written a year
37:07
or so earlier that was unconnected to the book
37:09
even then. And then I wrote other things that
37:13
love. One of my favorite ones, which has never
37:14
been published, I have it. I'm going to find
37:16
a vehicle for it. Maybe you can help me. It's
37:18
called Ode to an Outhouse. And I was describing
37:22
how everybody needs to have an outhouse in their
37:25
life, how important it is because it forces us
37:27
to take responsibility for our shit. And the
37:32
psychological sort of metaphorical Power of an
37:38
outhouse in the middle of the mosquito infested
37:41
woods, you know You got to take that bucket every
37:44
month and you got to go dig a hole and get rid
37:46
of it I mean it's it's quite an epic experience
37:49
and I think of everybody experienced that in
37:51
the world would be a different place mind you
37:53
be a lot of holes, but I think so the essays
37:57
were just I didn't write them from ambition.
38:00
I didn't write them go. I'm gonna write some
38:01
essays. I want to write some short stories. I
38:04
just started writing and the inspiration then
38:07
came and and That's where the joy for me as a
38:11
creative person as a creator is the joy of creating
38:14
This is where we get into problem. I have biggest
38:17
with AI AI Can do extraordinary things and can
38:22
make one's work processes so much more efficient
38:25
This is scary, even though it is inaccurate 30
38:28
40 percent of the time, but I think that It is
38:31
fundamentally, AI is not compatible with a creative
38:34
process, period. No gray area. It's not. And
38:37
why do I say that? I say, well, that's great.
38:39
It can give you great ideas. No, because the
38:42
whole process as a creator is the process. What
38:45
AI is about delivering outcomes. So it says to
38:49
you, OK, you have this thing you want to do,
38:52
and I will figure it all out for you. I'll do
38:55
it. I'll set it all up for you. I'll work it
38:57
all out, make it all done. I'll give you an outcome.
39:00
spits out the outcome back at you. So you, as
39:04
the creative person, no longer engaged in the
39:06
process. That's what the nutrition comes for
39:08
the creator. You're now irrelevant. You take
39:12
that to a bigger scale, humanity becomes irrelevant.
39:15
I mean, it's, and we need to get our heads around
39:20
this. It's interesting because I think France
39:21
just today passed a law saying no kid under 15
39:25
can use social media. Yeah, Australia had something
39:29
similar going on. Yeah, I mean, I think this
39:32
is a good thing. Frankly, I think it's a good
39:34
thing. I think these are little brains being
39:36
for I remember seeing 60 minutes years ago. Well,
39:40
when Steve Jobs was a lot and they interviewed
39:42
Steve Jobs, interviewed Bill Gates, a couple
39:44
of other people. And, you know, in computer,
39:47
they said, you know, you guys, you know, your
39:49
kids must have just every toy must be awesome
39:53
in your household. And they all of them to a
39:55
T said no. In fact, we don't let our kids go
39:58
near the computers except in very, very restricted
40:02
ways. The interviewer was like, why is that?
40:04
He said, we invented all of this. We developed
40:07
all of this. And we didn't have that. He said,
40:09
what you need is to develop a creative mind,
40:14
ability to be curious and go after them, learn
40:16
things and have to put some effort into learning
40:19
things. That's the life journey. You take that
40:21
away from a young child and it's almost abuse.
40:24
They said, no, my kids don't have phones, they
40:26
don't have this, they don't have that, whatever.
40:29
And I wonder if those tech giants could take
40:31
a more active role in making sure that kids under
40:35
a certain age don't dive into the technology
40:40
of it all too soon. You know what I mean? It's
40:43
a good question. The problem is that those people
40:44
don't have control over their companies. I mean,
40:47
we love to bash Jeff Bezos. I get it. And all
40:50
these guys. But these companies are now run by
40:52
boards of directors. and they have shareholders
40:55
and they're all about the next quarterly profit.
40:57
They don't give a rat's ass about the health
41:00
of the American people until it starts to affect
41:03
their bottom line. And it's the problem with
41:08
unfettered capitalism in a sense. We need to
41:11
have, I say restrictions, we need to have rules
41:14
of the road to protect people that need protecting.
41:19
People say, well, you can't do that. That's terrible.
41:21
It's like the gun thing, whatever. I grew up,
41:24
we didn't have seat belts, okay? Our cars did
41:26
not have seat belts. We sat in the car, there
41:28
were no seat belts. And you could buy - And then
41:31
someone got into an accident and here we are.
41:33
With seat belts. Anyone could buy a cigarette.
41:34
You could go anywhere and buy a cigarette. Vending
41:36
machines all over the place for cigarettes. You
41:37
just, you know, you put in 25 cents for a pack
41:39
of cigarettes. You know you can get one, okay?
41:42
Then they put in their laws, they put in, they
41:44
said, well, now everybody has to, by law, you
41:46
have to be wearing a seatbelt. And if you're
41:47
caught not wearing a seatbelt, is you get in
41:49
big trouble. Okay. It's against the law. Well,
41:51
except New Hampshire. I think New Hampshire still,
41:52
you don't have to wear seatbelts. Oh, well, let's
41:55
all move to New Hampshire then. I'm surprised
41:58
it's not overpopulated. We can also all die.
42:01
But I think that the bottom line is... gee has
42:05
your freedom has been completely taken away from
42:07
you and is your life just been destroyed because
42:10
it's a law that says you have to wear a seatbelt
42:12
uh -huh this is where i think we don't get it
42:16
this this this unfettered idea that somehow Any
42:19
regulation is somehow impinging upon my rights.
42:23
We don't have rights. Rights are such a human
42:26
thing. We think we have rights and nobody else
42:29
does. That my rights are more important than
42:31
your rights. Your rights are more important than
42:34
some small child in Africa's rights. I don't
42:37
think so. And I think that this is what we don't
42:39
ever... sort of look at the big picture. Again,
42:42
it comes back to this concept of if we operated
42:45
from facts, most of the stuff we live with and
42:48
do and perpetrate, we wouldn't because it's dumb.
42:55
And it's just dumb. And here in North Carolina,
42:59
we have these giant factory pork farms. Huge
43:03
pork farms and so are pretty much most of the
43:06
pork you get pork chops and you know pork roasts
43:09
and you know all that and then you go to Chinese
43:12
fast food and you get the pork it all mostly
43:14
comes from North Carolina and giant huge farms.
43:16
I mean we're talking about Massive and what do
43:20
you do with all that? I'm gonna go those zillions
43:21
of pigs. What do you do with all that waste?
43:24
And I love a good pork barbecue. Come on. Yeah,
43:27
right. What do you do? What? I'm hungry now.
43:29
We got to stop and eat What do you do with all
43:33
that with that these giant lakes? They're literally
43:35
lakes of sludge and shit and Sometimes when that
43:41
massive storm comes in off the coast or hurricane
43:43
You know these lakes can be their man -made lakes
43:46
can break and all that sludge goes out and it
43:49
can literally wipe out communities I mean the
43:51
pollution is toxic and um any not very intelligent
43:55
person would say, you know, we shouldn't do it
43:57
this way This is not a good way to do it. You
44:00
know, we need to solve that problem first and
44:02
sort it out from there, but we don't. We don't.
44:04
Because again, it goes back to the corporate
44:06
thing. They don't, you know, they don't operate
44:08
from that perspective. Their belief system is
44:11
profits, certain level, back to the shareholder,
44:15
all that kind of stuff. That's their measure
44:17
of right and wrong. And I think to a large extent,
44:20
Um, so it goes back again to this idea that if
44:23
we operated from facts rather than beliefs, we
44:25
would have, um, we'd be living in a very different
44:27
world, very different world. Yeah, absolutely.
44:31
Wow. A lot to chew on, a lot to think about here,
44:33
Max. I know, I know. That's my job, right? Let's
44:39
get to our three delicious questions. You know,
44:42
bouncing off of the pork that we were salivating
44:45
on, what is a delicious meal that you've had
44:47
lately? Well, here's a delicious meal, which
44:50
is a secret. I hate giving this away, but I already
44:53
did. It's actually listed in the book, Suscat.
44:56
I have a wonderful scene in there. I have a lot
44:58
of food. Food shows up in that book a lot because
45:01
I love to eat. I love to cook. I love to eat.
45:04
To me, I have this theory. This is my own little
45:09
theory, which is the purpose of life. The purpose
45:11
of life is to try to figure out what to do between
45:15
meals. That's the purpose of life. The meals
45:18
are really the center of the universe there.
45:23
Pavarotti's linguini is a recipe that I got from
45:26
Pavarotti, the great opera singer. He grew up
45:29
with a very poor family in Italy. He had this
45:32
recipe from his mother that had come down from
45:33
his grandmother. It's astonishing. When he would
45:37
tour or was doing opera at the Metropolitan Opera,
45:40
he would demand in his rider the conditions,
45:43
the things that he would get. He would have backstage
45:46
in his dressing room the ingredients to make
45:49
this. Then he would make it himself after performing
45:52
in Falstaff. This is what it is. I'll give it
45:58
to you real simply. You take a can, one of those
46:02
little cans of tomato paste, and you take about
46:05
four or five cloves of garlic, you chop it up
46:07
finely, dump it into it with the tomato paste,
46:10
really good high quality olive oil, stir it around,
46:13
stir it around, stir it around, stir it around.
46:15
Chop up parsley, a whole bunch of parsley, dump
46:17
that in there, stir it around, stir it around,
46:18
and keep drizzling in olive oil until it no longer
46:21
absorbs. First of all, it's astonishing how much
46:25
olive oil tomato paste can absorb. You stir it
46:28
around and it disappears. You should keep doing
46:29
it until it can't disappear anymore. It's a good
46:32
workout for your wrists. Then what you do is
46:36
you cook the linguine al dente. It's a little
46:40
teeny bit undercooked. Drain it. Put it back
46:43
in the pot. pour this little saucy stuff you
46:47
have over it, mix it all around, then you take
46:49
some Parmesan cheese, best to have Parmesan or
46:52
Giano, and you sprinkle it on there until it,
46:55
enough, whatever, a little salt and pepper, certainly
46:57
salt, you have to salt it. And you mix that up,
47:00
so it's an uncooked sauce. You can't stop eating
47:03
it. I'm sure you can. It's a gastronomical miracle.
47:07
If you want the recipe, you can find it in my
47:10
book in greater detail, but it's that simple.
47:14
And you can make the whole thing, the entire
47:17
sauce, you can make in the 10 minutes that it
47:19
takes for the pasta to cook. And I'm telling
47:21
you, people, I've cooked it, my friends are like...
47:24
Oh, Max, can you come over? We're having dinner.
47:28
Come over for dinner? Sure. Would you make Pavarotti's
47:31
linguine? I thought you were inviting me to dinner.
47:35
The few people I've shared it with, it's raw
47:40
garlic, but it's blended so nicely. It's just
47:43
spectacular. Yeah. How did you discover this
47:45
recipe? I got it from Pavarotti. Well, yeah,
47:49
yeah, yeah, but like you like what what what
47:51
led you to? To to it like just what randomly
47:54
led you to it. I just I just First of all, I
47:58
couldn't imagine it just seems it's counterintuitive.
48:01
You sort of look at the ingredients and you go
48:03
Really can't it can't be that good. Oh my god.
48:07
I just want my favorite so I think my favorite
48:09
food period so it's it's a Watching Pavarotti
48:14
make it Um, you know, I was watching him make
48:17
it and it was like, wow, he was so enthusiastic
48:20
He was always enthusiastic in person on video.
48:23
How did you watch? I saw I saw I saw him cook
48:25
it on video But he talked I talked to him later
48:27
about it when I worked with him About you know,
48:32
I said, oh, you know that yeah that recipe that
48:33
you did on camera or whatever He said yeah, he
48:36
says and he said he said he said the thing is
48:39
it's most Americans understanding of Italian
48:41
food is Italian American cooking like for example,
48:43
you can't get Spaghetti and meatballs in Italy.
48:46
They don't they don't have it. I've got it. Really?
48:48
Why is it fed fed to America as this Italian?
48:52
It's an American dish. It's an American Italian
48:54
kitchen the American Italian community, you know
48:57
immigrants Oh immigrants. Oh my god. Imagine.
48:59
We didn't have immigrants. There goes our Chinese
49:01
food There goes our Italian food. We got the
49:03
Mexican food. That's going. What are we eating?
49:05
Boneless breast of chicken broccoli and I don't
49:08
know I mean this we are so What's the matter
49:12
with us? We should be celebrating our half of
49:14
our fast food cuisine. We should celebrate immigrants.
49:18
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Italy. Thank
49:20
you, Mexico. Oh my God. Thank you. You know,
49:24
uh, it's, it's just nuts anyway. So, um, yeah,
49:27
uh, food is yeah. I mean, so pub writer was explaining
49:32
and I've learned it since is it. There's Italian
49:34
cooking and then it's Italian -American cooking.
49:37
The traditional Italian cooking that really almost
49:39
predates the Second World War, which is what
49:41
this recipe did, is a different thing. They had
49:44
certain kinds of ingredients, their vegetables
49:47
and all that kind of thing that grow in their
49:48
own gardens locally and things like that. I think
49:52
the really authentic Italian, and most Italian
49:55
restaurants in this country are not authentic
49:57
Italian, they're Italian -American. There's nothing
49:59
wrong with that. It's wonderful stuff, but real
50:02
Italian food, I'll tell you this one little other
50:05
quick story. My uncle who fought in the Second
50:08
World War, and I think it was with Patton's Third
50:11
Army, I can't remember which, but they came up
50:12
through Sicily and they kept pushing the Nazis
50:15
out. They kept coming up through Italy. And they'd
50:18
come into these little Italian villages. And
50:21
what the Nazis would do as they were retreating
50:24
is they would take all the boys and men, they'd
50:26
put them out in a field and they'd kill them.
50:28
They'd shoot them, gun them all down. So the
50:30
Allies would be coming up through Italy, and
50:33
they'd come into these villages with no men,
50:35
just women. And the other thing, because Patton
50:38
was moving so hard and fast, he wanted to, that
50:41
they couldn't keep their supply lines fully stocked.
50:46
So these soldiers were getting hungry. So my
50:48
uncle, who loved to cook, he was an interesting
50:53
guy. He would go into these villages and he'd
50:56
find a family, a woman and the girls or whatever,
51:00
and he'd sit with them and they'd feed him. And
51:02
he'd write down the recipes. So when he died,
51:06
I got his recipes. And there's half a dozen of
51:11
them that are so good that they're breathtaking,
51:13
from soups to bolognese to all this. It's like
51:17
Italian food you can't get here. And it's a wonderful
51:22
thing and it's such a tribute. And you think,
51:23
wow. What are we missing out on? I mean, all
51:26
you have to do is look at American bread versus
51:28
everybody else's bread and think, oh my God,
51:29
what's the matter with us? Lots of things. Yeah.
51:33
What's your delicious pop culture obsession at
51:35
this moment? A TV show, movie, book, music, podcast?
51:38
A TV show. One of my favorite TV shows of all
51:40
time, I'll just say, was Twin Peaks. I don't
51:42
know if that's probably... Yeah, I'm familiar
51:43
with it. I've never watched it though. That's...
51:45
Oh my God. You should watch it. Just an incredible
51:47
sense of humor. So that's my standard. But recently
51:50
I've been watching Dutton Ranch. Okay. Is it
51:55
on Netflix? No, Paramount. Paramount, okay. What's
51:59
it about? Anyway, Taylor Sheridan. Taylor Sheridan
52:01
is a showrunner, producer, writer. Yellowstone.
52:04
He did Yellowstone, he did Dutton Ranch, he did
52:08
Madison, which is about the best. 1883, I believe.
52:10
And then he did that wonderful 1883, which I
52:12
love. I have to say the style of my book, Suscat.
52:17
was inspired by, but definitely is on the same,
52:21
what I call same template as those shows for
52:24
big epic filmic kind of thing. And so I've been
52:28
watching Dutton Ranch, which is wonderful. It's
52:30
watching two people who are fairly privileged
52:33
and sort of had it all together and everything
52:35
fell apart. And so then they start over again.
52:38
and you start over again. You think, we start
52:39
over again, it's fresh, everything's good. No,
52:41
you start over again, you climb back into the
52:43
maelstrom somewhere else. And they're having
52:45
to deal with all the stuff they're dealing with.
52:46
It's wonderful. Excellent acting, beautifully
52:48
directed, well filmed. And it's just entertaining
52:51
without being, you know, as I'm getting older,
52:55
I find the more violent shows less appealing.
52:59
It's just, it actually, it bores me. Um, and
53:03
when you're just looking at body counts and things
53:05
like that, I just, what's the, I'm wasting my
53:08
life. Um, investing in relationships, uh, strong
53:13
dialogue, um, you know, investing in that more
53:16
so than, um, as you have had mentioned, just
53:19
like I was saying, yeah, I was retweeted violence.
53:21
Right. I was saying to my wife, I said something
53:23
about Dutton ranch. I said, I watched an episode.
53:26
I said, God, that's amazing for an hour. Nothing
53:28
happened. And yet you were still captivated.
53:30
Captivated because of the relationships between
53:32
these people and how they're communicating, what
53:34
they're talking about, which is really what we
53:36
want. We as human beings want to connect. We
53:38
want to connect. And more even, we also want
53:41
to be validated, but we want to connect. So Dutton
53:44
Ranch is one I'm looking at now, which I'm enjoying.
53:46
And there's a lot of other ones that they're
53:48
great fun ones. Like, I don't know if you ever
53:50
watched Lincoln Lawyer. That's hysterical. My
53:53
wife is into that on Netflix. Oh, I see. Just
53:55
check it out. Really, the guy who plays the Lincoln
53:58
lawyer is the perfect casting I've ever seen.
54:01
What's it about? Why do you like it? He's about
54:04
a freelance lawyer who's obviously a brilliant,
54:06
brilliant litigator who takes on, you know, nefarious
54:10
clients sometimes and always gets them off. And
54:12
he does a lot of his work in his Lincoln town
54:14
car. He's a driver and a driver's driving him
54:17
around. He's doing his cases. And it's funny.
54:21
I mean, it originally came out as a Matthew McConaughey
54:23
film, which is a wonderful film if you find it.
54:26
And then they adapted it into this TV series.
54:28
And it's just the characters are funny and interesting
54:31
and very compelling, totally likable. And the
54:33
guy who plays the lead in it was just maybe the
54:37
most perfect casting. I've seen it in a long,
54:41
long time. I don't know anyone else who could
54:43
play that part. It's amazing. I love that. Yeah,
54:47
and funny enough, Matthew McConaughey, also known
54:49
for those Lincoln car commercials. No, isn't
54:53
that weird? Yeah, he's going to the bank. Right.
54:58
What's a delicious thing that's happened in your
54:59
life lately? The book, the book release. Of course.
55:01
I think when my book came out on April, I had
55:04
no idea. Whether anybody would be interested
55:08
or anybody could buy it because again, I wasn't
55:10
motivated by that. I was just happy to be finished.
55:14
But I think the reviews have been phenomenal.
55:17
I think we've got a 4 .9 rating on Amazon and
55:19
Barnes and Noble. The reviews that are coming
55:22
in are really, I don't know these people. I didn't
55:25
use all my family and friends. Of course, they
55:27
didn't read the book. So I'm really grateful
55:31
that people are reading it and it's resonating
55:33
with them and it's generating some interest from
55:35
Hollywood. So we'll see. I mean, it's a shock
55:38
to me, frankly, even with all the stuff I have
55:41
done. So I'm grateful for that. I think, you
55:45
know, the thing is I've had an opportunity to
55:47
work with a lot of famous people. The Beatles,
55:49
John Denver, whatever you want to name a few.
55:51
Yep. Right. But you're always working for somebody
55:55
else. You're always, you know, amplifying their
55:57
platform or working with them to develop new
56:00
things with and for them, but it's always about
56:02
them. So for me, this book as a being a creative
56:06
person, it took a lot of courage, frankly, for
56:08
me to follow this too and a ton of You know moments
56:12
of going stuff that i can't do this i forget
56:15
it and where people help me along the way in
56:18
terms of encouraging me keep going to read what
56:20
i'd written already read and it's different when
56:23
you doing your own work so for the first time
56:25
in my life and i'm a late bloomer here i actually
56:27
just took something from scratch. no help from
56:30
anybody else. No outside people telling me what
56:33
to do or how to do it or direction that way.
56:36
Just taking my life's experience professionally
56:38
and personally and putting it into something
56:41
and putting it out there in the world. It's a
56:43
very scary thing to do in a weird kind of way.
56:49
My definition of success was I finished it. I
56:53
did it. and the fact that it's resonating with
56:58
others. John Denver said, I asked John Denver
57:01
once, and for those of your audience don't know
57:03
who John Denver was, he wrote many other wonderful
57:06
songs, Take Me Home Country Roads. Yes, of course.
57:09
Which is one of the greatest songs of all time.
57:12
I asked him, I said, John, how do you know you've
57:14
written a great song? How do you know that? Because
57:18
when it becomes yours. There you go. He says
57:21
I can write lots of I write lots of songs that
57:24
I think are fantastic my favorites the different
57:26
But until it becomes yours until it becomes the
57:29
listeners, um, and then it's not my song anymore.
57:31
It's theirs That's when I know I've written a
57:34
great song So and I love that I agree. So it's
57:38
it's the same thing You know, I don't know if
57:40
I've written a great book and I'm not gonna I
57:42
don't you know I don't know how one defines that
57:43
I suppose But it is a good book or not a good
57:47
book. You tell me there you go Yeah, food for
57:51
thought. Max, this was great. Can you remind
57:54
everybody the title of the book, where to find
57:56
it, and also your website and socials, like where
57:58
we can find you and follow you? Well, the book
58:01
is called Sasket, S -A -S -Q -E -T, no U. And
58:06
there's an apostrophe, I think, in between the
58:07
Q and the E at the end? Yeah. And you can find
58:10
all kinds of fun stuff about the book at Sasketthebook
58:14
.com, S -A -S -Q -E -T -thebook .com. And if
58:19
you want to find out more about me, which I personally
58:22
find to be a very boring subject, you can go
58:26
to maximlangstaff .com and you can see some of
58:29
my work and some of the stuff I've done. Yeah,
58:33
reach out. There's all kinds of little ways to
58:35
reach out those things. I'm also on Facebook
58:37
and on have my own YouTube channel now and snap.
58:42
What's it called? Instagram. I can't keep up
58:44
with all these things. Yeah, I don't spend way
58:47
too many. I don't spend almost no time on any
58:49
of these sites. But when somebody works for us,
58:52
I don't have time. Yeah, I know. Me neither.
58:55
I don't have time. I'd rather really I don't
58:58
want to spend my life living somebody else's
59:00
wife. Exactly. Exactly. Well, this yeah, this
59:04
was great, man. Thank you so much for your time.
59:05
And for those of you listening and watching,
59:07
once again, you can find the delicious culture
59:09
with John Francois wherever you get your podcasts,
59:12
Apple, Spotify, and make make Pavarotti's wing
59:15
weenie. Come on, you guys. There had to be some
59:19
value proposition from this podcast. And that's
59:21
it. The Pavarotti's linguini. We get off the
59:24
phone. I expect you to head right to the kitchen.
59:25
There you go. I'll need to see if I can find
59:27
a link to Pavarotti's linguini that I can provide
59:30
on the show notes. That would be a great thing
59:32
to add. That would be great. Well, you can find
59:34
it in the book. You have to read the book to
59:38
find it, I'm afraid. You have to buy the book
59:40
and then read the book. Boy, it's the most expensive
59:41
Pavarotti's linguini you've ever had. It's like
59:46
hunting. You're hunting. You're hunting for Pavarotti's
59:48
linguini. There we go. And if you like the Delicious
59:53
Culture podcast, please rate and review us on
59:55
Apple and Spotify. Much appreciated. Email thedeliciousculture
59:59
.gmail .com for any questions, concerns, comments,
1:00:01
feedback. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at
1:00:04
The Delicious Culture and subscribe on YouTube
1:00:06
at The Delicious Culture, John Francois. John
1:00:09
Francois spelled J -O -N -F -R -A -N -C -O -I
1:00:13
-S. Next time, Max, we got to talk about The
1:00:15
Beatles and John Denver. I really, I really...
1:00:17
You can. If you want to have me back, I'd be
1:00:19
delighted to. It's been a great conversation.
1:00:21
I do want to challenge you and just suggest that
1:00:23
I think your audience would really love to hear
1:00:26
what you just said three times fast. Wait, wait,
1:00:30
wait, all the promo stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Can you
1:00:32
say, can you say all that promo stuff three times
1:00:34
fast? Oh my God. But I mean, you know, it's like,
1:00:38
I sit there listening to you going, how does
1:00:39
he do that? That's a gift. How do you do that?
1:00:42
It's literally all ran down on a Google doc.
1:00:46
Yeah. If I, if I didn't have a Google doc in
1:00:48
front of me, I would struggle to, to read that.
1:00:50
But yeah, I just, I just go through it as I read
1:00:53
it on the doc. You're good. You, you're good.
1:00:56
You. You're great. All right. Until next time,
1:01:00
guys, let's deliciousness ring.