Life's F'n Nuts

Flow states? Psychic moments? Madness? Oh boy...

Lol, I'm just being dramatic. I actually give a 'fair to middling' review of Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher. 

Kind of...LOL 

I share my latest, can't-miss thoughts on the ol' artificial intelligence super brain machine. 😅

I go on and on and on about moving beyond the "creative threshold." 

Guess what I did on the 4th of July...🫣

Shoot! We're losing touch with the art of being with the unknown! 

Musings on our screen addicted culture...

Amidst war, injustices, and general societal insanity, humans always find little micro obsessions to fixate on...

Being creative and expressing ourselves can provide a sense of meaning and purpose, but it can also get tangled up with our ego. 😬

How do we stay informed and educated without overloading our nervous system? 

If there's one podcast you listen to this month, I can't recommend this one enough. 

Proving to yourself that you still have a few tricks up your sleeve...CHANGES EVERYTHING

Is "being an artist" even a real thing??

Being likable is (mostly) good ... being TOO likable is, wellll...

Do you ever just want to be alone? 

Is there anything worse for the human soul than UTTER PREDICTABILITY?!?

Some things are so beautiful that they make you cry! 

Trying something new! 

We were bad. REALLY BAD. My 7-year-old son's soccer team struggled ALL YEAR. On the final weekend of the season, the head coach was out of town, and I was asked to step in. "Is there some way - ANY WAY - to reach these kids in a way they haven't been previously reached?" I asked myself. It turns out there was ... ! 

"YOU'RE SIMPLY NOT GOOD ENOUGH ...." with those words, my heart sank. I'd used my ingenuity and craftiness to skip the line and get a job interview directly with an award winning Creative Director. But after a heap of excited anticipation—the call ended in under five minutes. 😣Sooo, how did I respond? 

From inside my dark tent, I heard menacing sounds. Was it bears?? Wolves?? Well. Turns out, I couldn't have been more incorrect ... 

I thought I had my finger on the pulse, but, apparently, I did not! 

Years ago, I turned on the radio in the middle of the night—and heard the craziest thing. It was ... my voice. Say whaaaaaat?!?

An epic tale about the magic of friendship, inspiration, and art. 

A very short story about a tiny moment that put everything in perspective. 

The dystopian future has arrived ... kind of. 

We leveled up! Life's F'n Nuts is back for Season 2, with new and improved stories. 

In 2004, I took a Greyhound from LA to Oklahoma and then hitchhiked from Oklahoma to New York City. On my final ride into NYC, the guy who picked me up was going to see his guru, Amma, the “Hugging Saint.”Wait—what— did you say the Hugging Saint??? She was in a book I read that set my entire trip in motion! #MINDBLOWN 🤯

Years ago, I worked on a project called HARD MOTHERF*CKERS, where I’d interview a group of former San Quentin inmates in my backyard, all of whom had served at least 40 years.During one of our filming sessions, a generally chill member of the group snapped and nearly threw his friend off my second story balcony.In this episode of Life’s F’n Nuts, I tell that story.… oh, and listen all the way through for the surprising twist at the end.

I used to do something kind of crazy when I was young ...I'd follow Bob Dylan on tour and sing LONG VERSE, old-time ballads in exchange for tickets to the show. One night, a meathead-fratboy-bro started heckling me. My response surprised the hell out of me! 😆 Enjoy the story in Episode 4 of Life's F'n Nuts. 

When learning how to ride a bike, my son DID NOT want to take off his training wheels.And me, the “divinely wise” parent that I am ( 😝), had a totally normal response to this, thinking to myself, “Man, this kid’s screwed for life. He’s gonna be riding around with training wheels when he’s 30 years old!”Lol.In episode 3 of Life’s F’n Nuts, I tell a story about my son, his cherry red little Schwinn, and the profound life lesson I learned that I still carry with me.

For a 3 1/2 month period in 2021, I was in the friggin zone creatively. It was the most potent artistic burst of my entire life. I was … PROLIFIC. BOLD. CONFIDENT. UNTOUCHABLE.Then, one day, in November of that year—it suddenly went POOF.Gone. Just like that.In Episode 2 of Life’s F’n Nuts, I tell the story of what fueled that creative rush, what killed it, and what I learned about the creative process that I think my audience will find interesting.

Work kinda sucks, huh? Many people hate or merely tolerate their jobs, yet the average person has to spend 90,000 hours working during their lifetime! What's up with that? In this week's episode, J.R. shares his thoughts on the culture of work, while telling the story of his own winding career path.

My podcast begins on April 9th. The nuttiness of parenting, the shittiness of work, the unexplainable wonders of the cosmos... and a lot more.