276 - Sven Schumann

All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Stateside with Kai and Carter, a new podcast from The Guardian. And they are using this podcast to slow down the news and wrestle with the questions that we all have about what's happening in the world. And they do it three times a week, Jason. Does that sound familiar to you? We don't really talk about, you know, a lot of international global news items and climates and cultures and sports and things like that. We do talk about fashion and wellness, but for everything else, Kai and Carter are a great place. All right, so who couldn't use more news? Listen wherever you get your podcasts. or watch on YouTube. All right, so Jason, you know, I don't think this is food related. I heard from a source that you were turnt up in Highland Park last night. Is that true or false? I went to a friend of the show, Sam Jane's house. But I did not get turned up. I had a couple glasses of wine and a Yuzu beverage. There was nothing else consumed that would make you feel like this? Well, I did eat some Mexican food yesterday. It was probably... Not the best thing to put in my body, but I don't know. I don't know what happened. I felt fine up until literally 10 minutes ago. Are you saying that the thought of podcasting with me makes you sick to your stomach? Because that's kind of what it's starting to feel like. I don't know. Maybe it was like 20 minutes ago, half an hour ago. I was feeling really cold, and I had the heater on, and I had a jacket on, and then I got too hot. I think just going back and forth from the cold and the hot lately, It always gets me fucked up. That's like the number one thing that makes me sick. You're such a sensitive cat. I am very in tune with temperatures. And now that my life partner is out of town in New York, I was talking about this with Sam yesterday. Before, you're like, all right, my chick's out of town. I'm about to hit the club. I'm going to go to parties. I'm going to go do whatever the hell I want.

When you're older and in a relationship, you're like, oh, shit, I get to watch whatever I want on TV without asking somebody if they're in the mood for this. Get to eat whatever food you want without having to be like, are you in the mood for this? You know, I want that. I want soup tonight. I don't want to eat fucking soup for dinner. You know, all that shit. So you have COVID again is what you're saying. Somehow this is the third time you've gotten COVID, and you don't even live in New York, or you didn't even go to a BuzzFeed party this week, so I don't know how you would get this. I don't know either. I was Sam's girlfriend, I believe, did not go to the BuzzFeed party, but I know everyone who went did get COVID. I mean, for once in my life, I'm glad to be left off of the invite list for the Condé Nast holiday soiree. I was ready to fly back, but... I don't have any... symptoms um and i don't think i've ever had covid i found that impossible but sure i know right it doesn't make no sense but i've been tested 4 000 times well i'm actually i'm i i'm i'm sorry we had to start the show this way because i was going to talk to you about some of your investments oh okay well i just wanted to see how much crypto you had because this this melania trump nft is launching And I was thinking it could be a good investment for you. This is an investment that I haven't seen yet. It's breaking today. Much like the COVID media variant is what they're calling it on NewYorkMagazine.com. Okay, so tell me what this Melania Trump NFT consists of. Does anybody know? Has anyone seen it? Hold on. Is it an audio-based NFT? Video? Image? Do you think it's some sexy picture of her when she was young? younger um melania trump launches her own nft platform in first public endeavors since the white house it's not just it's a platform oh okay it's called melania's vision okay it embodies her passion for the arts and it will support her ongoing commitment to children through my be best initiative so this is all fake so basically this is money laundering i forgot about be best i i also forgot also forgot about that i guess since she can't like sell illegal weapons through her cousin anymore

She's had to kind of get into a technology-based platform that will allow her to stay home with your lookalike, Baron. Shout out to Big B, my king. Do you think Big Baron's had sex? Oh, yeah. Do you think so? Big Baron has definitely had sex. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he doesn't have a massive body count, but, you know. He's very similar to a Cousin Greg style person. Yeah. Damn. You're right. Far from a stick man, but gun to your head if you're like, has Cousin Greg ever been deflowered? Most people would be like, yeah, probably at some point in his life he had some weird sex a few times. Yeah. And same thing for Baron, even though, I mean, isn't Baron like... A little on the young side, though. He's a little on the young side, but I think that, obviously, he's in the spotlight. His peers are probably like, damn, I could maybe go into the White House if I meet this dude. You know what I mean? He's got big feet. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, so that's smart of Melania. Why buy the train when you can buy the rails? And that's Investment 101. No, it's Investment 101. So I didn't know she was such a... a bullish investor on the forefront of these emerging technologies. I would love to hear her say blockchain in her accent, so I'll wait for that. She thought the block was something different. Wait, are we spelled block B-L-O-C where I come from? I don't understand why there's a K on the end of this. She's like, I do have a company that builds chains for prisoners, but you're saying you put them onto block? Oh, shit. I have a chain startup. You're like, oh, what do you guys do? You know, mostly stainless steel, but we have some aluminum as well of sustainable one as well. Maybe that's what Melania should really start getting into is sustainable. Handcuffs, shackles. Yeah. Melania Trump is on the forefront of biodegradable handcuffs and batons because she is in tight with, of course, the police department, the FBI from her time in the White House. So she's able to kind of get some government contracts. We're trying to get – how long gone would love a government contract? So if you guys out there work with any – we could do something for you guys, and we're happy to clean the money through how long gone LLC.

No problem. Yeah, there are. I remember Dan Allegretto, when he was on the podcast, he was asking us if we were sponsored by some various government weapons contracts, some skunk works, black ops style, you know, weapons manufacturers. We had a laugh. But the joke's on him because we're looking to sign some contracts in 2022. And I don't care how much blood is on our hands. You know what I mean? It's nothing for me. Public facing, we'll just say aerospace. But, you know, those who know know that, you know, we're not we're not building uranium plants. We're just kind of building like the little screw that you have to screw the uranium onto the warhead. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. We want to be responsible for that one necessary part that you can't bomb someone without. But if you get yourself one of those extremely durable... thick-threaded, how-long-gone screws, your warhead will hit its target. No questions asked. We guarantee it. And shout-out to a friend of the show, Benjamin Edgar, who helped us. It's a collab. We collaborated with him. Yeah, exactly. He milled it himself. Actually, I was so inspired by his incense holder. I was like, do you mind making some screws for us to help war criminals? And he said, absolutely. That's why we're friends. That's why we're friends. Once we saw his forged CNC milled incense holder, we were like, yo, let's do, I'd love to pick your brain about some other items. Right now we're calling them home goods, but some other items. He has the technology. He has the eye for it. Instead of asking him for his factory connects, we decided it would be better and more tasteful to just do a straightforward collab. You know what I mean? Because you can't really ask people for their sources when it comes to production. It's kind of poo-pooed on. Uncouth. It's uncouth. So there is a nice profit split. Ben is, of course, lining his Benjamin Edgar jean pockets with some nice green.

ducats provided by How Long Gone and all of our deep connections into the military state of the United States. Shout out to the whole Raytheon family, baby. Yeah, and also shout out to the Raycon family. You know what I mean? Because I wouldn't want to forget because I'm using Raycon earbuds right now to record this podcast. Yeah, this holiday season, give the gift of Raycon. This isn't even sponsored. This is just my love of earbuds. Yeah, for the Apple AirPods, if you buy them now, are you going to get them before Christmas? Probably not. Supply chain issues, that's a whole thing. But Raycon, they don't even know what a supply chain is. They're already, like, if you go to their website, they're already like, this doesn't ship, like, period. So, you know, taking a page out of Soldier Boy's book. Exactly. I mean, Soldier Boy did everything first. He probably had a government contract before we will. Yeah, Soldier's been buying the rails, not riding them, leaving us in his wake. You know, I feel pretty good today, actually. I had to do a... Didn't you get a little rehab PT from an old friend of the show? I went to Burbank and I tapped in with the goat pickle Rick. And he... That motherfucker... By the way, I noticed his forearms. Bro, he's jacked. My God. His forearms look like my calves. And I know you guys have seen those because I wear shorts as often as possible in every photo. And you love to comment on my sock tan line. Pickle Rick put his motherfucking thumbs in me, and it was a nice, quick two-and-a-half-hour session. Rick, if anything, he goes rounds. No, he goes rounds. He doesn't stop when the timer goes off. He stops when the job is done, and America needs more of that. Exactly. That's something to aspire to. I think it's feeling better. A day or two after that, your body, I feel like, is a little bit in shock from the intensity of the whole thing. Of course, of course. I had a rare Hunter After Dark session last night because my work schedule was just too packed. Because we did some taping yesterday. Oh, yeah, we did. In the morning at an iconic Hollywood institution, Amoeba Records, which was...

Very fun for both of us, I think. I think that Jason was in a little bit of a foul mood, but once he found Sublime on vinyl, I could see him perking up. Is that fair to say? That's fair to say. I was in a foul mood, not to bring it back, but because of supply chain issues. What? Oh, really? You know, Adele. eating up all the vinyl processing plant, real estate. You couldn't get that new Jack White on Gatefold, and I know that's upsetting. Yeah, only the old stuff. But we filmed Amoeba, What's in Your Bag, where you go around the record store, you pick out a bunch of records. They could be old favorites. They could be new ones you're trying to check out, and you kind of talk about them, add some anecdotes and things like that. Add color, Jason, in stores tomorrow. Yeah, the whole point of it is to add some color. But every time I would be like, oh, I want to pull up this record, pull up this record. They never had the one record. from the artists that I wanted. Yeah, they didn't have Sam's Town by the Killers, which did kind of cut me off the knees, but I was able to recover. Maybe because it's Christmas time and the holiday vinyl shopping has the shelves cleared out. I don't know what it is. Maybe we should have done this earlier, but it was tough for me to find a bunch of stuff that I wanted to speak on, but I was able to pull through. Like you said, Sublime was available on vinyl. 150 gram weight. Of course. It was $46. We won't give away any more of the picks, but it'll be on YouTube January 10th is what they're telling us. I think we're coming right after the show Snail Mail. Yeah. First the Financial Times, now a record store. So the reign of press continues. Thank you to Nick over at the New York Magazine Corporation for naming us a runner-up for the top ten podcasts of the year because I guess that since we're not Ezra Klein or... you know true crime it can't be that interesting which i understand yeah maybe uh maybe next year we'll make the actual list if we talk more about selena uh-huh yeah of course or or we just talk more monotone and more boring i think maybe that's something we should we should kind of work on yeah you know but much like um you know many other recording artists your favorite frank ocean drake as well you know they're pulling out

of the the grammy nomination yeah you know system they're sort of rebelling against that and we're kind of the same way we don't really want to be on you know the top 10 lists especially the ones that are a little i mean new york mag vulture like that's cool but there's so many other lists where it's like this institution that has nothing to do with us thinks the best i disagree with you i i love institutions i would love to be nominated for a spoken word grammy and thank you to new york magazine i really care about being on your list um Sorry that laid-back TJ thinks that the Orange County Register is the only paper of record. But some of us do care about the accolades and recognition from esteemed publications full of gatekeepers, and I am one of those people. Much like the Oscars and the Grammys, nobody who really... It's all sort of like... Don't compare a podcast to her. When you see who actually wins these awards, it's sort of like, oh, we're... We're kind of shedding light on something that needs to be shed upon. It's not necessarily the best movie of the year, but they deserve it. And I don't disagree with any of that. I think a beautiful part about awards for things like that is to help signal boost. you know, a film or a director or an actor or whatever who is never going to be as successful as, you know, a Tom Cruise or an Angelina or whatever it is. So at least they can get this something. And a lot of other pods out there need that more than us because we've, frankly, just been killing it. It's been really cool. It's been really cool. No, but we appreciate New York Magazine, the Financial Times story. about a podcast based around friendship is out in print this weekend. Luckily, I'm a subscriber, so I'll have a copy of that to share with you, Jason. I don't think you're a subscriber of the Financial Times, Chris. Are you being facetious? No, I subscribed to the weekend for the How to Spend It supplement. It's one of the best magazines being made today. Not a joke. I believe it. I believe it. How to Spend It. What is that? It's the supplement. It's the Financial Times supplement.

version of t magazine basically edited by joe ellison um there's some great stuff in there uh every week some you know the financial guys you know they like to have a little fun too right uh yeah yeah we made all this money we gotta spend it somehow right exactly they keep cocaine in business you should check out this uh my 38 foot chris craft you know check one of those out all the new helicopters are coming out this year you're thinking you're thinking of the rob report that's a different magazine actually uh but you can you can check that out at the Barnes and Noble at, at the Grove. Next time you're over there. Damn, I was just there a couple of days ago. Cheesecake. We should, we should introduce our guests today though. Cause we're, you know, we're, we're crossing the ocean yet again and we're tapping into the worst city in the world, Berlin. It's a transatlantic voyage. It is a transatlantic voyage. Our boy, Sven Schumann, uh, is the co-creator and co-editor, I guess, of the talks, which is a great interview website that's been around for quite a while. and they get everybody under the sun to talk to them, and it's been a favorite of mine for years. They have a new book out, No Ideas, Final Quotes in the Creative Voices of Our Time, and that is with Fidon, and that is available everywhere you buy books now. And, yeah, when we say that he's talked to everyone, truly everyone we were like hey man like what is the way that you would like get some new audience members new listeners when you're starting out a pod and he's like oh yeah i guess you know we had like Mick Jagger, that was a good one. We're like, what the fuck? Yeah, what the fuck, bro? But no, I mean, Finn is quite charming. You'll see. Yeah, he's a good sport, a good guy. Interviewed a lot of food people, Francis Malman, Otelenghi. This is one of my favorite guys because I have a few friends like this where I'm checking out the Instagram, scroll down a little bit, and it's him at 16 in a Stephen Klein. shot product campaign you know because you're like damn this guy looks pretty good for his age and you're like oh this guy was professionally hot when he was younger and he's aged gracefully into it and that's something that unfortunately um was not available to me the the model to interviewer pipeline yeah exactly is is a is a pipe that you did not have access to no no no no no that i i had to call a plumber and he said i'm sorry we can't work on this

But yeah, let's cross the pond and we'll talk to Sven. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by a new podcast from The Guardian, Stateside with Kai and Carter. This is covering a lot of our bases, Jason. It's trying to slow down. the news and wrestle with the questions we all have about what's happening in the world and i know you particularly have quite a lot of questions a lot of questions but how often because we do this podcast three times a week and that's a sweet spot how many times do they do three times a week and i i have a feeling just based on the platform and these talking points that they're maybe going to be covering different stuff than we do that's just a guess the guardian is not some billionaire owned They're not afraid to say what they want to say, brother. Yeah, Rupert ain't sniffing around in what journalists Kai Wright and Carter Sherman are up to over there at Stateside. But yeah, listen wherever you get your podcasts. You can watch it on YouTube. It's three times a week. And who couldn't use more news? You know, especially when it's not, you know, from here, let's say. Give it a listen. Give it a listen. All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Quince. Jason, the temps are warming up. It's getting hot out there. Summer always changes how I get dressed. I need pieces that feel lighter, more breathable, and they're just easy but still put together. I don't look like a slob. That's why I keep coming back to Quince. They focus on high-quality essentials that feel and look amazing. Breathable linen and soft organic cottons. Well-made basics but without the luxury markups. That rare balance where everything feels elevated. but still effortless. Yeah, Chris, linen season is here. I wore a linen blazer to dinner a few nights ago in the warm California sun. But, you know, you got that Italy trip coming up this summer and quality European linen pants and shirts. Upgrade that look starting at just $34. You know, if you get a nice linen suit, a little t-shirt underneath it, some chill shoes, you're looking good, but you're staying cool. The inside of your special areas are nice and dry as you turn up with your besties. So elevate that summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com slash how long for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns, even on a nice holiday now available in Canada.

That is Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash how long. That'll get you free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince punto com slash how long. Oh, this is huge for me personally. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by TaskRabbit. Oh, baby, let me tell you something. This is not a joke. I use TaskRabbit a lot because I can't do anything. You need some art hung? TaskRabbit. You need a fucking... Something put together, a cabinet. Got to reach that cheese grater on the top shelf. TaskRabbit. Anything you need, TaskRabbit can take care of it for you. And, I mean, how it works, TaskRabbit connects you with skilled taskers in your area. They can help you move. They can assemble furniture, repairs, yard work, mounting, and more. You can search for a Tasker based on cost, skill set, availability, and past client reviews so you know exactly who's showing up and can have confidence that they know what they're doing because Taskers have assembled over 3.4 million pieces of furniture, completed 700,000 home repairs, handled 1.5 million moves, and the numbers are just going up, Jason. Yeah, throw a little money at the problem. It's not so expensive, and that job that you really don't want to do is something that another person out in the world... is very good at doing and would gladly do it in exchange for a little bit of money. So when life happens, your to-do list grows. Get ahead of it now and get $15 off your first task at TaskRabbit.com or grab the TaskRabbit app. using promo code howlong. Taskers book up faster, especially for same-day tasks. So book Trusted Home Help today. That is $15 off your first task using promo code howlong with the TaskRabbit app or at TaskRabbit.com. Sven, how are you, bro? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. Where are you coming to? What part of Europe are you in? I'm in Berlin. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Berlin's an ongoing topic on this podcast because it's my least favorite city in the world. In the world? That's the biggest thing.

In the entire planet. That may be a little bit of an overstatement, but I didn't have a good time there, but we've equated that to my age and lack of partying as two of the major issues that I had. But you're not from there, are you? No, I'm not from here, but I've lived here for the last, I don't know, 15 years or so. But I assume if this is the worst city you've ever been to, you've never been to any other city in Germany then. Yeah, that's actually true. You make a good point. You make a good point. Okay, so Chris thinks Germany is the worst country on the planet. Berlin just happens to be a popular destination in that country. Yeah, so rank your worst German cities for us, if you don't mind. I actually don't know that many because I literally never really traveled. around it's like i grew up in munich okay and and munich is really pretty but super conservative i thought munich was like kind of chic though on the low is that is that not true yeah in a really conservative kind of way what do you mean by conservative do you mean they're like republicans or do you mean like everybody's a little buttoned up i think it's more like aristocrats you know like it's like yeah it's not that cool This is all conservative chic is literally Chris's Twitter bio. So none of the stuff you're saying is derogatory at all to him. I know you think this is bad, but what you're telling me is sounding pretty good. So continue. What's the winter like? What's the winter like in Munich? You know what I mean? Really sell me on it. It's actually the winter is much better than here. Here the winter is like it's gray and cold and dark. Like it's basically like bright for like four hours a day and the rest of the time it's pretty depressing. Well, there you at least get some snow like a couple of times a year, I would say. And you get like the actual like sky comes out. But besides that, and you get a lot of people with like Woolridge coats. That would be unique. You seem like the kind of guy who's pretty good on the slopes. Is that a safe assumption to make? Not really. Not entirely. I mean, I used to go skiing when I was a kid, but I have not. I somehow I can't get myself to like make the effort of going somewhere, getting all the gear, getting dressed.

being cold, all of this kind of sound. I think the gear is the fun part. I thought you strap the skis on top of the Porsche. You know what I mean? You throw the helmet and the Gucci goggles in the passenger seat. You just head up to the mountain. I don't see what the problem is here. I have two kids, so think about going to the mountains into the snow with those. Forget it. Damn, bro, you got two. Man, we got a couple dads in a row on this podcast, man. Jesus Christ. You got two kids. You don't look that old either, I got to say. You look good. You look young. Yeah, and they're like 18 and 49. No, I'm just kidding. No, they're still pretty small. They're only like eight and five. You look like you had your eight-year-old when you're maybe 10 years old because you look about 18. I was a really early bloomer. Okay, okay. You know, in Europe, Jason, they look at sex differently. They kind of start a little younger than us. Drinking age is earlier, fucking age is earlier. Those two things might be intertwined if you really think about it, Jason. You know what I mean? Sometimes I get all fucked up and I'm like, I got to start a family, dude. After 10 pints with the guys and some mulled wine, all I can think about is starting a family. That's where my head goes, too. So, Sven, do you enjoy the music of Berlin? Not particularly. Okay. I don't actually like any of it. I'm just miserable here. Sven, are you in jail? I just want to double-check. Blink twice if you need us to break you out of Berlin. No, the music, I mean... It's been a long time that I actually engaged in nightlife here. Pretty much everybody because of COVID. But I think for me, it's been an extra five to ten years on top of that. And the techno music was never really mine. Somehow I needed somebody with a guitar or singing or something. Hell yeah. Yeah, that's right. You're on my side. Because you're giving me a little bit of a Richard Ashcroft vibe. So I was hoping that you also enjoyed the music of the Verve. He's also giving me minimal techno DJ look as well. He's got a long-sleeved black shirt on, some slick back.

Bob haircut. Finn is giving something for both of us, Jason, which makes him a great guest, really. Yeah, because Chris needs music with guitars in it only, and I need guys who look like you who are using a weird European mixer that costs 7,000 euros. Yeah. You don't do ketamine every day, but it's a pretty big part of your life. He's doing some experimental parenting over there. The laws are a little different in Berlin, so you can get a little crazier with the parenting. I mean, you've got to spice it up. I've been home so much with them that at some point, you've got to get it going. Just do a bump for daddy. You just got to chill out, man. Sometimes those kids are going crazy. And, you know, some families, they'll put a little bit of schnapps in their bottle or something like that. But you got to do something a little stronger. I think this was like a really German thing, but this was like 100 years ago. The schnapps in the bottle kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. We do that here, but where I'm from, it's a little bit of Jack Daniels, you know, because I'm from Atlanta. So we're more proficient with the dark liquors, you know, so you put a little nip in the bottle. I don't think my... Crispy drinking brown. I don't think my parents did that, and that explains a lot about me, but they probably... You know, my dad is the calmest guy on earth, and he... did put his hand through the drywall, uh, because I wouldn't shut up, which is an ongoing theme. I don't know if you, have you ever punched a wall because your kids wouldn't shut up or you're pretty mellow? No, I think my kids are actually pretty easy. I'm not that mellow, but my kids are actually pretty easy. Like the thing, the thing of like the crime talk was never like, that was never a problem really. Luckily, because I'm sure that would fucking kill you. Yeah, I guess German people aren't really big criers. They're more murderers, I guess. I'm not sure if that counts for infants, but... Look, your kids aren't strong enough to kill you, but they have thought about it, and they're still... They're kind of plotting... They've tried. Every day that passes, they get a little bit stronger. So keep an eye on those tots. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They've tried. They've tried. I mean, I've gotten...

I got a really nice black eye once. I thought that it actually broke my face because one of my kids woke up in the middle of the night and he sat up in bed and then decided to go back to sleep. But by going back to sleep, just going, fuck. And it literally almost knocked me out. It was good. So for listeners at home, he was just laying up, talking to you. And then slammed his head down onto the pillow. Onto my face. But it was instead of your nose. Yeah, it was on the side of my cheek. It was more like the cheekbone. This sounds pretty hot, if I'm being honest with you. I mean, I feel like it looked pretty cool. It did, until I tell people how it actually happened. Yeah, I mean, have you been in a fight before? Yeah, this is a long time ago. I think I more wanted to just see what it's like to be punched in the face. Yeah. I was never a big fighter. Yeah, no, me neither. We're not tough guys over here. Yeah, we all like to know what it feels like to get punched in the face and whether or not you achieve an erection, that's your own business, but it probably takes you out of the mood if it happens by your own kid. Yeah, it's a different sensation. I'd like it to be given to me by a woman wearing some leather or vinyl clothing. Vinyl's vegan, so we kind of like to lean that way, Jason. Cruelty-free type of sexual injury. Yeah, Jason's into cruelty-free BDSM. That's kind of his thing. I mean, if you can help it, why not? It's a small community, but a tight-knit community. Are you coming to us from an office or a studio, or are you at home? This is my office. This is my office. At home, this will be not really possible to record at this stage. Sure, sure, sure. Because we were, you know, they sent over. So I'm a longtime reader of the talks. Like, I've been reading it since it started. I was very familiar. Then your publisher sent over the book. And then former guest of the show and friend of the show, Armand, is your boy. You guys grew up in Germany together. So it's all coming together on this episode. Armand, who also be interviewing a lot. Yeah, he'd be an interviewer as well. So what's up with both of you guys being friends and both having an insatiable appetite to interview people? What's the through line there? I actually don't have that much of an appetite to interview people anymore.

Okay. You're like, I'm all set. So your belly is full. My belly has been medium full. Through COVID, I developed a little bit of an appetite again. Yeah. Okay. Because it was kind of the time where I had more time and I could use the time to speak to people that would be quite inspiring. Okay. I think that's the kind of use that anybody should have taken in quarantine. Before quarantine, did you conduct or at least try to conduct? the bulk of your interviews in person in the beginning. Yeah. In the beginning. For sure. Like, I mean, until, until COVID we try to, we try to always connect interviews in person because, um, there's clearly a different kind of connection between people when they see each other. when they sit across from each other, especially when you can see expressions and stuff like that. On the phone, it's difficult. We would do it sometimes. We would never do it by email. Yeah, sure. Because by email, it's just like you would have to go back and forth and it's a pain in the ass and it's not really an interview. And most of the things really just develop out of speaking to people as you guys probably figured out. I used to be the same way with my interviewing and podcasting and recording with people. It 100% had to be in person. Otherwise, I thought it was stupid. But during COVID, We started this podcast 100% remotely over Zoom or FaceTime, and it ended up being my preferred method. And I think that's for more personal reasons because it's easier to maybe say something that might not be offensive, but might be a little more difficult to say to a person when you're staring at them right in the face. Have you experienced anything like that? You mean they're not as easily slapping you? Exactly. We can bring this all back to getting punched in the face. It's much more difficult to strike me in the face, yes. I mean, we started this, and we literally would FaceTime audio people because everybody was available. Everybody was kind of sitting around. You thought this sounded like shit. You should have heard the earlier episodes. Yeah, you should have heard the earlier episodes. But I think that everybody prefers in person, but now, even though it's not impossible, it just feels like,

laborious in a way even though i think we all agree it's like the right way to do it you know what i mean um is it necessary i think is what you start to ask yourself yeah i don't think it's i don't think it's quite that necessary actually because the interaction through zoom like as soon as long as you see the other person it's actually all right and i think also a lot of people are getting used to the fact that they're simply not willing to drive anywhere you know like it's like I am simply unwilling. I am simply unwilling to participate. Making time, like, yeah, when you see a calendar invite and you're like, oh, I got to hop on the Zoom and do a podcast or an interview, you're like, oh, shit, I got to build my day around it. But, yeah, if you have to factor in driving and traffic and you start to be like, hey, I'm doing you a huge favor by going to your house or your hotel to do an interview. Yeah. And that maybe, you know, you could start off an interview by really resenting the host. That's true. That's true. Jason, we were looking through your back catalog and obviously the back cover of the book, which is done in a nice blaze orange. Your body count is crazy, bro. You know what I'm saying? I mean, the names, Glitterati, I mean, just the most important people. We've had some relative heavy hitters in this podcast, but I think you're a guy we should come to for some advice maybe. You know what I mean? Because it's like we're doing pretty well. But I think you've kind of – Yeah, we've both interviewed Alison Roman, sure. There's probably a couple other guests that we have both had on our media platforms. But, I mean, just going through the list of names that you've spoken with, a lot of them in the culinary arts, which is impressive. But, you know, Chris's favorite, Aaron Sorkin, like I said. Alan Rowe. I mean, Andrea Bocelli. That's fucked up. Anthony Hopkins, for God's sakes. And I'm not even done with the A's yet. Yeah.

Sir Ben Kingsley, Sir Benedict Cumberbatch. Are you the only guy, are you guys the only people interviewing in Germany? Is that like kind of, is it like a must stop on the tour, on the press tour? Or like, were you traveling to do a lot of this? I think there was, in the beginning there was, like Germany was usually like a must stop for like a lot of film companies to promote movies. Like it was really like everybody would come through Berlin. And then, you know, it's like we got, like with the talks, we got really lucky. It was sort of the time when we started, it was kind of the time when these niche publications online would pop up that we just randomly were one of them. It was early days. No, I remember it was early days. How early are we talking about? 70s? Yeah, it was 1967. My first interview, John F. Kennedy, God rest his soul, but he was a cool guy to talk to. Well, I've heard of other, I've talked to other podcasts about the same thing. where they'll have a podcast that is no bigger or smaller than mine, but the amount of famous guests they get on is shockingly upsetting. And I would ask them, like, what did you do? How did you get these big guests? And they would often say the same thing, which is all you have to do is get one big one on there, and then the rest will follow. Is that sort of a pattern you've recognized? This is definitely... how, how we started to, it's like in the very beginning we had like, you know, we were contributing to other magazines. Yeah. That's what I wanted to, that's what I wanted to get to. I mean, cause, cause a friend of ours that's been on the show, uh, he does a newsletter called blackbird spy plane, Jonah, and he gets all these crazy guests and it's partly because his background is in journalism and he has relationships and he's interviewed. Is that, are you in a similar boat? Yeah. Okay. Like we had, like we used to contribute, like we used to work, like write for different versions of like, you know, bulk and GQ and this kind of thing. and and we were able to like in the very beginning kind of make deals with publicists of like hey we get you a story in vogue but we want to use it for the talks like a different section of it that has nothing to do with the film that you guys want to promote but that will give you like an exposure for like you know the the person and what their creative process is kind of thing and

Luckily, we were able to convince a handful of really, really good people to start with. So I think the first ones included, I think we launched with Mick Jagger and Valentino. This guy just came on this podcast. Mick Jagger? He came on this podcast to shit on us in this accent. That's what he came to do. Not at all. I mean, these were unlucky things. We did ask. We asked. But also, I mean, like, you know, fucking Jimmy Fallon can't get half of these people. No, but okay. So with Mick Jagger, for example, you know, like the way that it works is like that guy never gives any interviews and that guy would not want to talk to us either, probably. But, you know, every 10 years, there's a documentary where he's going to be forced to do some press. Yeah. And if you get lucky in that kind of thing, it's like, that's how. People like Mick Jagger don't really come along that often. Sure. I mean, I think that because we have a similar approach where we're not usually that interested in talking about whatever is being promoted. You know what I mean? I mean, to some extent, of course, you know, like we talked to Mike Mills, you know, about his new movie and it's like half the podcast is about his new movie. And I think that's fine because that's like, you know, we're not film buffs. So we're asking kind of, you know, questions that I feel like are related. you know what i mean like on what we thought the movie meant etc etc but like i think that is also a key to keeping people coming back because it's like if because if they're on like a junket or a press tour They do not, they're done. They don't want to talk about this shit anymore. So if you offer anything else, if you want to talk about their bench press routine or the fucking kids or how they like their coffee, it's anything is better to them than the album or the new or the movie. Exactly. I mean, that's, that's generally like, that was always the goal is to just make sure that you're not asking the same shit that the other guys that have spoken to them for the whole day in 20 minutes slots. Cause yeah, when you're getting people like, I mean,

i feel like we don't really get into that too much but if you're getting people on this level it really is like they're doing 20 minutes on the hour you know for for three or four days it really depends on how it's set up it's like sometimes you get lucky and somebody recommends you to somebody else and they like you know like they have an hour time and you can choose when you want to do it as long as they're not shooting or something like that but um a lot of the times it's also that like yeah They have certain schedules, and they're probably getting paid to do these interviews. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How much do you pay your guests? There's usually a $60,000 fee or so that everybody gets. Yeah, a small Euro stipend. Thanks to the good people at Rolex, of course. Obviously, you're not coming out of pocket for that. I was going to ask you, bro, because that's the other thing that I noticed about your little shit when I was following. I was like, this went from some good interviews to these guys got Rolex as the presenting sponsor. Over here at How Long Gone, we love money. We love to make money. We do a lot of sponsorships. We do a lot of deals over here. The good people over at Timberland make a fine work boot. But Rolexes, those guys are cool too. It's cool too. Yeah, it's cool too. But I think that Rolex is such an interesting – it really works for what you guys are doing. It makes a lot of sense. I think that it works for both parties. Is that because of your tennis connection perhaps? Because I know they do a lot of – they don't really sponsor many things, but they always sponsor tennis stuff. Just any rich guy shit in general. The talks is rich guy shit. That's the reality. That's what he said. And that's why I like it so much. That's why I was so into it. It was aspirational rich guy shit for me. You know what I mean? Perfect. Fame and talent, that's pretty good. But how rich are these celebs is kind of what it boils down to. So tell us about your partner and how you guys get along. Because we're in a similar relationship. So I want to know if you guys have ever come to blows. you know, you've had to accuse him of tax evasion or anything like that. Whoa, slow down, slow down. We spent three years in prison together. We bonded, we bonded. I met Johannes when I was six years old on a tennis court in like rural Bavaria, where my parents had a house in the Alps.

Johannes' parents would live in the little village with a few thousand people next door. And that's how we met and became friends. And then later on, it came pretty naturally that we started to work together. I think it also had to do with the fact that we moved to Berlin together. And there was simply no work. Berlin was so poor at the time, too. I could have gotten a job and be paid 1,500 euros, and then it was probably a better choice to just accept the fact to not make any money for a few years, but to do your own thing. So you could either work at... a petrol station or the only other job listing on the, on the bulletin board was interview Mick Jagger. It was a really tough choice. I could, I guess I could bartend one night a week. I don't know. I mean, this is looking, it's tough. It's tough. I mean, yeah, I think that the. How do you guys do, because people ask Jason and I this a lot, about the division of labor, you know what I mean, between partners and who does what and how you fell into those roles. So we've always kind of been like, I've been more taking part of the editorial and strategic kind of planning of what the talk's editorial advice looks like. And Johannes has been taking care of more the business side of things, which is really good because at least... This way, we're not fighting for the cookies. Of course. Yeah, I'm kind of the money guy over here as well, so I understand Johannes' plight. You know what I mean? Because some of us love to make art, but we also love to count money. And Jason, unfortunately, is more of a pure artist and an audiophile. So I have to kind of pick up the slack when it comes to the wire transfers. Every creative needs a counterpart for that. And luckily, Chris's dad grew up as an accountant, so he's able to kind of become mine. And it's a relationship that works out quite well because I don't really have time for that kind of day-to-day stuff of managing the books. Yeah, you're so busy. Yeah, I mean, our lives are so intervened. We've been friends for 30 years now, more than 35 years.

I guess we speak about most of the decisions anyways, but in a very natural kind of way. It's not so much that we sit down and do editorial planning. It's more that we talk about what we want to do and what's the plan for the next few weeks. I didn't know you were a big tennis guy, so let's talk about it, Chief. Also, you look like... Not only do you look like a... Richard Ashcroft and a minimal techno DJ, but you could pass for a 200th ranked player on the tour. Yeah, not quite. Yeah, so I grew up playing tennis a lot. Like, I think from the age of like six till I was like, basically till I got interested in girls. Because then I would not go, continue to go with my parents to the country house where there wasn't that much to do and we would go to the tennis court all the time. I played with my brother and he was like three years older. we started playing at the same time so i basically had like the perfect kind of like the perfect person to play with all my childhood until then i stopped at 14 i would play like maybe once every five or six years and then a few years ago maybe four or five years ago so i realized that like shit like i need something in my life that like actually makes me happy and turns my head off sure sure yes we've all gotten we've all gotten to that point we've all gotten to that yeah and i randomly like got a call from a friend who was like hey do you want to go like i have a trainer do you want to come play tennis at night and From that moment on, I've been playing three times a week for the past five years. Now, how was it returning to the game? Because I've played with people like you, and they're sneaky. They're like, oh, yeah, I played when I was a kid, you know, a little bit or whatever. And then you get out there, and they're monsters. Because it's just like, I feel like it comes back to you pretty quickly, you know? It comes back pretty quickly, plus that I realized that I have an advantage to actually think about shit now. Like, when I was 14... I would literally just like, you know, I would not think about the game. Like I would just play and try impossible shots and like, you know, like whatever comes around, like it was super intuitive. While now it's like, I think I have a different perspective on things and like you actually.

kind of try to think of like you know it's like how am i going to go about this like what is the yes we call that we call that tennis intelligence you know and yeah and um i had none of that when i was younger but i think that's kind of the point of it because one of our one of our jason and his friends who is like our de facto coach like he played very seriously then he taught kids and then he played nyu and the whole thing and just the way he approaches it is so different than anyone i've ever been close to it's just like really really mental and it's really like It reminds me of, I guess, because I played sports when I was a kid, kind of the same thing, until I discovered punk and skateboarding. I was like, okay, I'm good on this. You know what I mean? But it is like, I think tennis more than... a lot of things is truly like fundamental shit. Like you have to just like, he will make us do ladders and fucking move our feet. That's all he cares about. Like, he's like, you guys aren't even ready to hit the ball. Like, no, I think we're pretty good. He's like, no, no, no, no. He doesn't, he doesn't let us hit. We only hit practice balls with him. He only lets us hit green dots. He won't let us hit a real ball. He's like, you're not, you're not ready for that. It's been five years. So it's a quite humbling experience. So in Berlin, are you playing indoors on clay? No, we're playing indoors on hard courts on carpets. And outdoors, it's like East German tennis courts. I've never seen anything before. I started playing here. What's the vibe of an East German? It sounds like it's post-war. What do you mean? Yeah, it's like a GDR tennis court, which is basically fake grass with just normal sand. on top of it. What? I'm not kidding. What the fuck? Wait, so hold on. Do you guys play on carpet and sand? I'm starting to believe you're in jail again after this. That tennis court sounds like time on the yard to me. I mean, it does. It does. And it looks kind of like it too because it has this massive brutalist building right behind it. It used to be the tennis club that I played. It used to be the tennis club that was owned by the Bayer Pharmaceutical Company.

So it's pretty gray in German. Yeah, I think when you get into that side of it, you really start to meet people. And that's what people say they play golf for. You know what I mean? Shit like that, like fake sports. It's like, because all you're doing is socializing. It's called networking. It's called networking. Yeah, it's called networking. But I think that the meeting people part of it is pretty nice. I don't know how competitive you are. You look like you're maybe a killer out there. I'm pretty competitive. I can be pretty competitive, but not as bad as I used to be. Are you a racket breaker? Because I feel like you've broken a racket in your life. I have, but not... Not since I picked it up again. So only in your angsty teenage years. Yeah, but also I really like my records, so I can't, like, and I only bought it simply for the look of it, so, like, I don't want to trash it. Wow. You and Chris have a lot in common. Well, I mean, look, man, it's, I think tennis is such an aesthetically beautiful sport, you know what I mean? So if you care about stuff like that, it's pretty easy to find things that you like, you know? Sven, what other stuff do you buy just for the look of it? I know wine is a popular one. They'll just buy it if they think. Do you think the label looks cute? Are you that kind of guy? I buy books. Books? And a lot of them also buy the look of it. I end up picking them up at some point, but I had over the past... 10 years, I've been buying lots of books. Now you've just got to work on the reading them part. I get it. Yeah, they're not really readable books. They're more like books to look at pictures. Okay, I'm back. Jason's back. He's not a strong reader, in German or English. Yeah, love. Picture is good, though. You know what I mean? What's up with the... I need to confront you about the German cuisine as well, because you guys are doing some funky shit over there. Come on, Chris. The work that they've done with mustards is amazing. They're on the front lines of mustard innovation. That is true. Absolutely. For the last 500 years. But are you cooking for the family, or is your wife cooking, or what's the vibe? My wife cooks a lot.

And she goes really healthy. She's super extreme. She has a lot of vegan food, and she's a nutritionist. Damn, you got a nutritionist wife? I like this. That's a good vibe. I didn't know they had those in Germany. My wife is Canadian. That's why. She lived in New York for 10 years. My man. My man. He knows where to go to find the good ones. He already knows the vibe. This was not really the place to find a wife. Luckily, they have Instagram in Germany, right? The Explore page. Oh, that's funny. So your wife is super health conscious, so that helps you keep this svelte figure. Yeah. You're eating healthy. I have a pretty fast metabolism. I think this was never really the issue, but I do eat quite healthy. Unless I'm responsible for it. If I'm responsible, I cook meat and steaks. Sausage. What is your classic German go-to if you've been out at the pub with the fellas? You know what I mean? It's 1, 1.30. He's getting Donna kebab. But also, it's illegal to be fat in Germany, so that probably helps keep the pounds down as well, right? They have some strict laws over there. When it comes down to cuisine, Bavarian food is killing it. It's pretty heavy, but here in Berlin, you can't touch anything that's local. It's horrible. weird, spoiled meat. So it's the opposite of California where all we care about is if it's local. In Germany, you're like, I don't want anything local. Import everything. No, no. You want the actual produce to be local. You just don't want a local person to cook traditional food. Oh, you definitely want them. So nowadays, Germans are asking people for their papers for a different reason, is what you're saying. Because otherwise, I don't really want you to make me this quinoa salad if you were born here. Yeah, I need to see your passport if you're about to cut that avocado. I need to make sure you're not from around these parts. Speaking of food, Sven, you have spoken with a lot of chefs. You just spoke with Yotam Odalengi, Cookbook God.

I was very jealous. One of my all-time top dream guests is Francis Malman. He actually does speak to him. Yeah. You did speak to Malman. I did speak to Malman. I didn't speak to Yota Motolenghi, but Francis Malman, he's a pretty interesting guy. Yeah, no shit. I only spoke to him on the phone, and he was somewhere in Argentina. It sounded like there was a storm going on the whole time. Because Malman, Jason, not only is he sick with the open fire, but he's a legendary stick man as well, isn't he? Yeah, I think so. Sven, are you familiar with that term? I have a pretty good idea, I think, yeah. You might be able to parcel together what we mean by that. I think so. I think so. Yeah, I mean, Francis does have a reputation for, you know, loving sex with ladies, right? Yeah, he seems like a classic lover from a different era, you know? Like, it's all sensory. His whole... His whole life is about sensory experiences. I think it's like an excuse to have three wives or something like that. Yeah, definitely. That's just how I am, baby. You know that. You knew that when we started this thing. He definitely uses some type of elk meat as lubrication in the bedroom. Elk fat, warmed over sensual fats of a game animal. Did he get into any of that when you were speaking with him? No, but I'm pretty sure he did talk about sex quite a lot. Really? He always finds a way to sneak it in. I think that's just a thing. That's also how you stand out. There's no other chef who, like, that's the main thing that they want to talk about. Yeah, usually, you know, you have to find out about a chef's sex life by reading a New York Times article. But it's nice for somebody to be a little bit more outright. Yeah, yeah, a little more outgoing. It's not a crime to, like, fucking... beautiful people you know and i can't argue with that francis as long as he's keeping his nose clean you know yeah but then when you're mario batali things are a little bit different you know they're more difficult hey hey we don't talk about malto mario like that no no no jason's a big mario guy he loves babo he still goes jason actually still goes to babo and supports the the franchise there's actually a great photo of chris and mario together

What were you doing in that photo, Chris? I've never met Mario. I think he's a good chef. I don't know if he's a great guy. But Chris, what were you doing in that photo with him? I was just – he was making a pizza for me and explaining to me the process and the ingredients. He could tell I was a novice when it comes to the pie, and he was an expert at the time. I think there was a photo where you guys were sharing something. Sweat? No, not his wife. We were sharing a – I think we were sharing a – A cone of gelato, I think. Ah, yes. Both licking an ice cream cone at the same time. That's what it was. But, yeah, like I said, I haven't met Mario. Seems like a cool guy, Sven. I have also not met Mario, but I actually don't know anything about him besides that he looks horrible and doesn't have the best reputation. Well, I mean, you bring up a good point because I'm looking at the photo of Francis Malman on the Talks website. He's a handsome guy. He's a good-looking guy. He has that. Yeah, he's a pretty good guy. I don't know what the word for it is in German, you know, je ne sais quoi, joie de vivre, whatever that is, that's something about somebody that is, you know, magnetic. Do you guys have a word for that? He's got that Patagonian plush or whatever. Patagonian plush. Is there a word in German for that feeling? I'm assuming not, but, you know. I guess not. You guys are a little bit more robotic with your sexual escapades and that's fine. That's a style. It's a style that some people enjoy. Did you live outside of Germany at some point? Did you go to college or, excuse me, university somewhere? Yeah, I lived in New York. I lived in New York for, I think, maybe five years on and off. What age were you in New York? I came to New York when I was 20. It was perfect. Oh, baby. Oh, baby. That sounds envious. That sounds good. But you had to go to college or were you just hanging out? I was just hanging out. I did an internship at a company called... AR media that my godmother hooked me up with who basically also gave me her apartment to stay in

and made it very, very easy. What neighborhood is 20-year-old Sven staying in in New York? On Washington Square Park. This motherfucker. I knew that was going to be the answer. I knew it was going to be too good. Okay, so you were in Gossip Girl, basically, is what you're saying. Yeah, literally. What did your hair look like then, though? It probably looked actually pretty similar. I mean, this is the longest my hair has been in, like, 10 years. It's just because I couldn't be... This is what it looked like when I was 20. So you're 20 years old. You got an apartment that's too nice on Washington Square Park. You look like you're an Interpol. You're listening to Interpol. What kind of stuff were you getting into? How often, how many nights a week were you going to Bungalow 8? Two, three. When I first moved to New York, I got really, really lucky. I didn't know anybody, nothing. But I met a few right people in the very beginning. This sounds good, man. I would say I moved to New York when I was 25, 26, and I think I was a couple years late. I still had my good time, and I went to all the places that you went in some regards. I feel like early 20s, when things really don't fucking matter, is the number one time. I mean, I literally, I realized, I think on the first day that I was in New York, I realized that I was never going back to Munich. Like, I was never, like, this was not happening. You saw the Jamba Juice at JFK and said, I can't leave this place. This is, this is too, this is, America is incredible. This is the greatest, this is the greatest country in the world. They have fresh juices at the airport. So you're saying the, the, just the, you're saying once you left Munich, it didn't, it almost didn't matter where you went, you were like, okay, I never can go back there. Yeah, I could never, like, it's just my whole worldview changed. It was like, what I thought that life was like. Just simply, it wasn't true. That was just the bubble that I grew up in. And I think a lot of people have that kind of experience, especially when they come to New York, because in New York, nobody's really from New York, so everybody is friendly. At least, like, you know, like, if you go out in New York, it's like, you make friends pretty easy. Yeah, I agree, because I think that the perception is that people are mean, but I think it's more like people are really just trying to survive, because it's very difficult to live there. But the reality is... Also, they're always drunk, so they're usually... That's also true, they're friendly.

No, but I found it very easy to make friends, too. I kind of agree with you. I think people are overall pretty friendly. Yeah, especially in comparison. I mean, try to go to a bar here and make some friends. No, I'm good. I tried that, and it didn't work very well for me. So, you know, no. I was told that I didn't do – I'm sure you're friends with Jorg Koch from O32C. Yeah, yeah. Jorg just – York was like, oh, you guys did everything wrong. You should have stayed with me. You know what I mean? I'm like, bro, I didn't know your estate was available or we would have fucking stayed there. You didn't tell me that. So you can't tell me I made the wrong decisions when I come visit your city if you don't. It's not really an easy city to like. arrive by yourself and then figure out what to do and have a good time but why so why did you settle there unless you're really into drugs yeah you just all you need is a bicycle drugs yeah these things come pretty easy enough money for some mustard and it's good you know the best part about berlin is the vietnamese food i will say i was i was shocked i was shocked to find all i didn't know that that existed there oh shit that's really depressing well i mean you know it's I think it was more of just a surprise because I could never see those two cultures overlapping in any way. And then someone told me the history and, like, why. Chris has a pretty narrow worldview. Yeah, yeah. I'm just a country bumpkin. Sven, let's talk about some musicians that you guys have interviewed. Was it you or your partner who interviewed Bjork? I think Johannes spoke to her in the past, too. But I think for this story, it was one of our editors. That's another dream guest of mine. I would love to just talk to her about fucking anything. Was that a successful chat? I haven't listened to it. You can't listen to it. You can only listen to a question or two. Why is that? I need you to help me here, Sven, because Jason's a guy who now listens to his articles because that's available in the New York Times, New Yorker. They do that.

I'm more of a traditional guy who likes to subscribe. I get my hard copies. I plop down on the couch. I read it like a real man. But we need to get Jason back on the written word, and I don't know what it's going to take. Maybe your website can kind of flip him back. You can try. That would be great. Okay, so basically the interview with Bjork is text only. It's text only. There's always an audio sample, which when we started, this was the only thing. I think we would have made the talks as a print magazine if we would have had money. But since we didn't, we started online. And we thought about, okay, so what can online offer that print can't? The reason for the audio sample was that we figured it's like, okay, well, you read something a little bit different if you hear somebody's voice. If you can click on it and hear the voice, you start reading the article differently. So, I mean, the advantage of it not being listenable, which is probably also why it's much harder to get these kind of people on podcasts, is it's a whole different commitment to be recorded for an hour and have the conversation be one-to-one online. than to speak to somebody for an hour and have it edited down and fixed and these kind of things we we edit and fix this podcast to an extent i don't think we do it to the extreme that like an editor does it in in a in a you know written way but i think that the i agree with you and there's a third level to that which is like the video element like we get that asked a lot like oh do you guys record this is a video and i'm like no and that gives people peace of mind as well so i i think that there's like There's three levels to the whole thing. Yeah, yeah. Video, nobody wants to be filmed. No, you don't have to put on a full face of makeup to do this podcast. Yeah, yeah. Because then the commitment is also not like the hour to record it. It's like an hour and a half to get ready to get your... Grand theme going and all that stuff. It becomes a different commitment, I think. Yeah, no, you're right. Okay, so do you listen to long-form interview podcasts like the one you're on right now anytime? I do, I do. I do listen to some. For a long time, I listened to How I Built That, How I Built This, How I Built That. Classic entrepreneurial podcast. Yeah, but it runs close, I don't know, after a little while.

Well, after quite a lot of time, actually. It did lose a little bit of its... You're like, I don't care how you fucking built Spanx, bitch. We don't have fat people in Germany. This doesn't appeal to me at all. Yeah, I mean, I've actually never listened to that podcast. There's some legendary episodes, some really cool, interesting stories, but yeah, a lot of them, it's kind of like, okay, you invented a fucking soup restaurant or something. I think it's like, I choose more. It's not so much about the podcast. It's more that I choose for people that I'm interested in. I listened the other day to a three-hour conversation between... Adam McKay and a comedian called Pete Holmes. I don't know who he was. He's an L.A. podcaster. He lives in our neighborhood. He's kind of like a dorky comedian guy. He is good at interviewing people, and he gets them to open up. Yeah, that conversation was really great, and I didn't know who he was. I hate him, but he's good. Because he has this kind of like aw shucks thing that I find really obnoxious, but I unfortunately think that's actually him, which is why it works. Because he's like an actor and a comedian, I'm like, this guy's full of shit, but then you listen to enough of those, and you're like, this can't be put on. It's like too dorky. You can't make this shit up. You know what I mean? It was a show with John Apatow, no? I never seen it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It didn't last very long. I think it was only on for, right, Jason? It was only on for like a season or two, maybe? Yeah, it was a couple seasons on HBO. It didn't do great. And he had a talk show, like a little late night interview show that lasted even shorter, shorter amount of time. You know, not for everyone. But also, you know, he's a guy who's had his own HBO show and his own late-night talk show, so that's... Yeah, it's really impressive. You know, that's something that Chris and I would like to do, probably. Yeah, definitely. I mean, do you have plans? Is the talk, is this book, like, is this a chapter for you guys? I mean, you're going to continue doing it, of course, but, like... Is this book a chapter, Chris? That's good stuff. I'm crazy, bro. I'm crazy, but...

But you know what I mean? Does this feel like an accomplishment? Does this put a bookend? Good God. Hold on. Hold on. Does this put a bookend on this chapter of the talks for you? It was nice to go through all of it. I think I would have probably not been able to do it if it wouldn't have been for COVID. No, I mean, that's the same thing for this podcast that you're on right now. It literally started because of COVID and it was able to be... you know, created and produced and grow into what it is right now simply because of COVID. Yeah, of course. Which is, you know, bittersweet. Yeah, I mean, it's like, you know, it's like lots of people had time suddenly and some people used it productive, other people not so much. Yeah, other people in America got fat. We made a podcast. You have a nice orange book available anywhere books are sold. I mean, it's really, we're just guys that are fucking killing it. You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, we made a podcast, collected unemployment. I got fat, but I also made a podcast, you know? And then, now that the podcast is doing well, I could start losing weight, and, you know, I'm not on unemployment anymore, so... What's the... Yeah, I mean, are you guys doing any promotional stuff for the bookers, or are you a little bit stunted because of, like, you can't travel? Yeah, we're pretty stuck with it. Like, we're supposed to have a dinner here in Berlin, like, two weeks ago. This was right before, like, the whole Omicron shit show started, and... like two weeks before we had to cancel because it would have, like, I think the regulations would have allowed it, but everything else got canceled around us. And then we're also like, oh, do these kind of people really want to come to dinner with 60 people when this kind of stuff is going around? And then is it worth it to do it? Well, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something, Sven. I would have been there. You know what I mean? I would have been there. I'm not scared of this shit. You hate Berlin, so that's... Yeah. Now I have another friend there, so things are looking up, but I mean, I didn't know... You know, do you guys wear masks over there? I feel like you guys are pretty anti-government, you know? No, no, no. It's still here. I mean, we never had to wear them on the street and stuff like that, but people do, like, you know, in all shops and all that stuff. It's still... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Still masked up. Torture. It's torture. You couldn't even have your 60-person dinner. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly.

your fancy restaurant it's really it's terrible that's fucked up that's a big that's a big ass table bro that's a big ass table yeah it was supposed to be one table that was the whole point damn we're gonna fucking film it for nowness too get the drone you guys have drones over there in germany they got drones they probably invented the drone that's true i don't know i mean not not not one for killing one for shooting sick ass videos only of course two different things Where do you guys holiday for warm weather over there? What's your go-to? Ibiza! I was just in the Maldives. This is the first time that I traveled. That's quite a flight. That was quite a flight. How far is that? 12, 14 hours, something like that. Did you go with the kids, bro? I did go with the kids, yeah. God damn, bro. You're crazy, man. That's crazy. Did you stay at their standard hotel? Nope. No, he stayed somewhere nicer than that. Come on, bro. My man was in the big house. He had five bedrooms. We only needed three. Did the kids' tutor stay there or something like that? I don't know. One of the drivers? I don't know. The driver and the tutor didn't come. No, the kids had holidays, and it's shit weather here, so you can't really travel anywhere in Europe and have them have a break and go to the beach and pool and stuff like that, so you have to travel far for that. And then normally in the summer, Italy is pretty close. Mallorca is pretty nice. That part of Europe is great. I'm a big Spain guy. I didn't realize it until later in life, but it's pretty fucking nice. Maldives is too far. I don't know if I care. Is it that pretty? It depends on what you're looking for. It's that picture book kind of pretty, but it's also really boring. And you're really stuck out there. What does it feel like to be just in the middle of the fucking ocean like that? Yeah, the kids come in handy. To go get you another drink? It's a double-edged sword. It's like, on one side, they come in handy because you're not as bored. On the other side, there's nothing to do. So like, you know, when they were younger...

It's a pretty repetitive kind of scenario because you go to the beach, you play with that, you do this, and there's nothing to do. You can't go look at anything. It's like one island with a hotel in it, and that's it. You don't seem like the kind of guy who's able to just sit on a lounge chair by the pool for 10 hours a day. You might go a little cuckoo. Is that correct? I don't know. I haven't tried in so long that I think by now I probably will be able to. How's the marijuana over in Berlin? It's getting legalized. Oh, great. Apparently, the new government is finally legalizing marijuana. How is that going to affect your life personally? Not very much. Oh, okay. That's cool, man. That's cool, too. I mean, Berlin is really easy with this kind of stuff. Like, this is not... A little marijuana is the least of your problems over there. That's the only reason anybody goes there. Yeah, this is really the least of the problems. I actually like it. I actually like it here in Berlin. It's an easy place to bitch about. Just like LA or New York. This year, I'm going to go to Berlin. I've never been. I actually enjoy electronic dance music. I enjoy people who are assholes. I want to ride my bike around and eat shitty vegetarian food. I think it's going to be an ideal place for me. I'll make sure to hit you up and we can go. Absolutely, absolutely. I'll take you around. I'll drop you off at York's house where you can stay. Thank you. Yeah, exactly. Also, if you need a babysitter, Jason's great with kids. He's really tall, so they're kind of fascinated with him. So you and your wife could go have a night on the town. Perfect. I'm sure you've been asked this question before. Any dream guests you haven't had a chance to talk to? Let's do some dead and let's do some alive. Okay, so... John Bonham. I think he would have been pretty good. Sick. John Bonham, you said? John Bonham. Classic. Very cool. I think alive. For a long time, I wanted to talk to Jack White, but he really didn't want to. Jack White?

Yeah. Why do you like Jack White? That motherfucker sucks. I do like... I mean, he's a shredder. He's a shredder. I mean, don't get me wrong. Yeah, I think it's like, for a long time, I thought that, like, he was the only sort of guitar player that you could hear that he's playing the guitar within the first five seconds. Okay. Interesting, interesting point. I like that. Oh, no, that's fair. That's probably true. That's probably true. But he really didn't want to. I've tried a couple times, and I even, like, I used to mention this in interviews all the time to see, like, I even, like... So he would get back to him? Yeah, so at some point... No, no, no. I mean, I'm sure it wouldn't... gotten back to him but i think drop a little easter egg no but at some point i sent like all the articles to his management i was like all right so this is clearly the person we want to talk to and they didn't answer so sometimes it doesn't work god fuck fuck third fuck third man records you fucking nerds fuck jack white they're too busy making seven inches in a van to do your little interview that's crazy man jack black better jack black the other the john bonham and jack white that's a Twisted combination of people. It just solidifies Sven's rocker status, Jason. And that upsets you, I think. I don't know who it would be now. Jack White, I think this was years ago that this was my main answer that I could just simply repeat to you guys without having to think about it. Fuck that, Sven. Come on. We get no respect on our own show. God damn it, Sven. Sven, what's your favorite color? Turquoise. Turquoise. Tiffany blue. Yeah, only Tiffany blue. It's the color of the water in the Maldives. You know what I mean? It hits different. That's the only thing. Sven, thank you for joining us. This was a pleasure. The talks, the book, out from Fidon. It's in stores everywhere right now, correct? Yes. It should be out worldwide, wherever they sell books. The website is the-talks.com? Correct. the dash talks.com. Um, all right, we'll hit your, we'll hit your line next time we're in Berlin and, we'll talk to you soon. Congratulations on the book. Please do so. Thank you guys.