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>>presenter: It's a great honor today to introduce Rainn Wilson, the co-author of "SoulPancake,"
and you also may have figured out he also plays Dwight from the series "The Office."
I'd like to read a quote from the introduction, just to set the stage for him. "I believe
art and its expression are the same as faith and its expression; science, too, for that
matter. And quite frankly, everything that urges us to create, to love, to think deeply,
to breathe in the moment, to be of service and to be human." Also joining us is Rainn's
friend and to help us guide us all in this quest and discussion is Will Eno, who is a
Guggenheim Fellow and also a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. His new
play, Middletown, was the winner of the 2010 Horton Foote Award and premiered at the Vineyard
Theatre in New York this November. The authors will also sign books after the talk, but no
memorabilia, please. And for the Q and A period, please use the microphones queued up in either
aisle way. Don't shout from your seats. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, please
help me in welcoming Rainn and William to Google New York.
[applause]
>>Rainn: Yeah! Yeah!
[applause and cheering]
What?
That's what I imagined a motivational speaker would do.
[laughter]
>>Will: That is nice, funny. It's very nice to be here. I'm a tiny bit nervous; I don't
normally do things like this and I might have killed a cop on the way over here, so I'm
a little uneasy.
[laughter]
But it's very nice to be here. I've known Rainn for 20 years and looking around, I see
a lot of youngish people and I just was thinking it's good to keep in mind that you do end
up, if you're friendly and you live and you don't die, you end up knowing people for 20
years and--
[laughter]
so, if you're loving and good, as Rainn has always been, then people remember that for
20 years. And I'm sure--
>>Rainn: I have not died in the last 20 years.
[laughter]
>>Will: I know. Twice.
[laughter]
>>Rainn: Yeah.
[Rainn laughs]
>>Will: But, how about, you touch on it quite a bit in the introduction, but how about talking
a little bit about other places that you've been in your life, other than where you are
now, with respect to the world and big things.
>>Rainn: Well, that's an interesting segue. I was not always amazing.
[laughter]
By the way, I had to; I had to go to AskJeeves to find out where this place was.
[laughter]
And that, no, I had to actually call my butler, Jeeves--
[laughter]
who was on my plane and he was, he asked my pilot to punch it in. Anyways, they eventually
Googled it and I got here. I, yeah, OK, how do I answer that question? I believe that,
and I talk about this in my introduction to the book, which is only the tiniest fraction
of what "SoulPancake" book is, but as I, at the ripe old age of 44, when I look back on
my life, I see it as one enormous creative and spiritual journey. And it's been quite
a miraculous ride and somehow or other I've ended up here at the Google headquarters talking
about a book. How's that?
>>Will: It's good. It's good.
[laughter]
So, Rainn is a deep and dark and full sort of figure, so I'm sure we're gonna get into
some difficult stuff, so I just want to start that by definition of terms.
>>Rainn: Ok.
>>Will: Webster's Dictionary defines a pancake as a thin, flat cake of batter cooked in a
pan, or on a griddle, a griddle cake, a flapjack. Do you agree?
>>Rainn: I agree. I think--
[laughter]
I think that definition pretty much sums up what a pancake is all about, so--
[Will laughs]
>>Will: It does, yeah.
>>Rainn: yeah. We'll go with that.
>>Will: All right. So, the book, in a great way, the book, it's--
>>Rainn: Are there any questions?
[laughter]
>>Will: And this is great, but can we get four of those Google phones up here? Is that
possible?
[Rainn laughs]
The book is a, it's absolutely a destination. You can have it sitting on your table and
you can go into it, but then it also it's a starting point, it's a really, really great
thing. It's like a very gentle game of truth-or-dare, or something like that; that people can kick
around with.
>>Rainn: Yeah. The book is many things and it has essays in it-- little ones. It has
lots of heart in it; it has many of life's big questions, which I'll get to more later
as I talk about artistic and spiritual journeys, creative journeys, technological journeys.
>>Will: You're gonna talk about that, really?
>>Rainn: No.
[laughter]
But, that's, I can't speak to that. But, yeah, this is a lot of what we have in the book
is a lot of creative challenges. This would be a great book for people to have to; this
would be great on a date.
[chuckles]
I'm just gonna go back to the beginning a little bit. Hi, welcome everybody; all you
latecomers. Oh, you're too busy Googling things up there?
[laughter]
To come and get a chair? All right, track suit.
[laughter]
So, when I started getting well-known for doing "The Office", I really wanted to do
something positive and unique on the Internet, cause there's so little, there's so much crap
out there. And when I was a teenager, I was every kind of nerd. I was even on the computer
club for awhile and I programmed in Basic a little bit.
[cheering and clapping]
Yeah. Yes. And, but I was also in Model United Nations and band and debate and I was on the
chess team. We were undefeated that year, no thanks to me.
I was fifth board, so I don't know if you know what that means. There's, you play your
top five players, OK? I was the fifth best in Shorecrest High School in Seattle, Washington.
Woo! No one went there. And, but one of the kinds of nerds that I was, was a philosophy
and spirituality nerd. I took a lot of great books courses, where instead of writing papers;
we debated things and talked about big ideas. And it was my favorite thing to do. I even,
a group of friends and I--, when I was a freshman in college, we decided it would be a great
idea-- we discovered caffeine. There weren't Starbucks back then and they didn't, coffee
was like, it was just like coffee farts; like someone ate a coffee bean and farted in a
glass of water and that's what, that's what coffee tasted like for decades.
[laughter]
And we--, so, they called it Folgers, or something like that.
[laughter]
And so, we went this cafe in the University of Washington, it was called Last Exit to
Brooklyn, and we drank these things called espresso floats and they had like, triple
shots of this espresso with coffee beans churned in there. And we didn't even know what caffeine
was or coffee beans and we would drink thing and we would just be instantly filed with
just the most amazingly, great ideas. And one of the great ideas we had was, "Let's
take my whole philosophy book collection, go up to Capitol Hill and rap philosophy for
money. And we'll make enough money to back and buy more espresso floats."
[laughter]
So, we went up there--it's a true story-- and we would rap to Rousseau and Kant and
Nietzsche and we were just out free-styling to these philosophers. We thought it was just
the most amazing; we were just flying so high at that point, like, "This is gonna be completely,
this is gonna be amazing. We blow people's minds." And we had a hat out and we were making
all kinds of money and then someone stole our hat with all our money. And we left and
then we had a caffeine crash and then it all ended poorly. But, that's to say that, so
the stuff of what this book is, is philosophical and creative and spiritual journeys. I was
very intrigued with, at a young age and so, I had this great opportunity to start a website,
so pancake.com. It has like, triple the usage of Google.
[laughter]
And it's out of the park. So, pancake.com, and then we decided that this would be a great
companion piece to the website. So, a roundabout way of answering Will's question is that,
this is a companion piece to the website, but it also stands alone in that it's about
promoting discussion. There's no answers in this book, there's no answers on the website.
Too many people know all the answers all the time. I mean, even newscasters have the answers
to how everything should work, but it's all about-- we realized as we were building SoulPancake,
like, it really is all about the questions. And whether you're an atheist or you're a
born-again Christian or a Buddhist or a Sikh or Agnostic or you've never thought twice
about it, we all have to deal with death and love and regret and free will and family and
all of these things that present so many of life's big questions. And so, I was just thrilled
to be able to launch something like this. And my other, my co-writers, and my co-"SoulPancake"
team members are right here. Stand up, you guys. Devon and Golriz and Shabnam, stand
up.
[applause]
Aren't they cute? Aren't they adorable? So, yeah. What else?
>>Will: I'm sorry; I'm a million miles away. Say that again.
[Rainn laughs]
[Will laughs]
>>Rainn: When I was a teenager, oh, ok.
>>Will: You reminded me that there's a great piece of, I think this guy's sort of a Jewish
mystic type, but his quote is, "The answer is the order of the questions." And the way
the book unfolds, and the order of the questions in it, are, it's very nice, meaningful and
sort of gently directed experience to go through it. Cause that's how you read this, at the
start.
>>Rainn: You start at the top.
>>Will: Yeah, I know. On the left.
>>Rainn: Who said that? Do you remember Maimonides? Was that--
>>Will: Jabes. Edmond Jabes.
>>Rainn: Jabes.
>>Will: Who has a book called "The Book of Questions."
>>Rainn: Oh, does he really?
>>Will: Yeah.
>>Rainn: Where can you get that. Could someone Google that?
>>Will: Could we get four of those Google phones up here to the microphone?
>>Rainn: Yeah, and that--
[laughter]
we categorized all the questions into nine chapters: Brain and the Soul, Art and Creativity,
Experiences and Emotions, Love, Sex and Relationships, Virtues and Vices, Introspection, Reflection
and Identity, God and Religion, Science and Technology--woooo! wooooo!--
[laughter]
Life, Death and Living and Who is Gonna Replace Steve Carell on "The Office".
[laughter]
>>Will: So, quick, some, just-, maybe people are interested in your personal life. Is there
a Mr. Wilson in the picture, other than your dad and like, I guess, you?
>>Rainn: My grandpa.
>>Will: Ok.
[laughter]
>>Rainn: He's dead.
>>Will: No, but you're very proud of Holly and Walter and--
>>Rainn: Yeah, I have a wife named Holly, who I love. We've been together for 20 years;
married for 15. And I have a son, Walter. We've been together for six years.
[laughter]
And you remind me of me when I was that age.
[laughter]
And, yes, I have a family. My wife and I had sex and we created a son.
[laughter]
>>Will: True story. No, true story.
>>Rainn: True story.
[laughter]
Basically--
>>Will: Well, no, actually well, now that I think of it, but--
[laughter]
>>Rainn: Just to go into more detail on that, she disrobed.
[laughter]
No. What else do you got? I would love to get into questions. I don't really know what
else to say here.
>>Will: Yeah, but I wanna, there's something I do want you to say, or--
>>Rainn: Yeah.
>>Will: both of us to somehow get towards saying, but in a great way, you've always
been the way you are in a deep and real way. But then also, or, seeds of you have-, you've
always been there in some form that has gotten stronger and clearer and all sorts of great
things. And I don't wanna get, I couldn't get too deep into philosophy cause I don't
know that much, but whatever we call the soul, do you think of it as something that can increase
or progress or grow?
>>Rainn: That's interesting.
>>Will: Isn't it?
[Rainn laughs]
>>Rainn: I, the soul is a weird one and I'd love to hear people's thoughts and if we have
a soul. I think the word "soul" is weirdly used, cause many religious beliefs says, "We
have an eternal soul," and they have a very specific view of what that is, I think, and
then we know what like, "soulfulness" is in music, but there seems to be a disconnect.
I grew up a member of the Baha'i faith, and that informed a lot of where my thirst and
my curiosity for all different religious beliefs and philosophies came from and my parents
encouraged that. They would invite born-again Christians into the house with the Watchtowers,
to talk about the Bible and we would have Buddhist monks stay with us and we had books
on Egyptian mysticism and Sikhism and it was a really fun household in that respect; other
than the fact that we all hated ourselves.
[laughter]
And then, the true story--
[laughter]
and then I went through a long period of time of really questioning all that and I really
decided that there could not be a God and that God was a construct and that only the
weak needed God and so much evil had been perpetrated in the name of religion and how
could religion possibly be relevant to this day and age. And that's, and I talk about
this in my introduction; I'm not gonna just tell you the whole thing right now. But basically,
as I came through my '20s and discovered that I was unhappy, even though I had become an
artist, which was my dream, and I moved to New York and I shaved my head and dyed my
hair black and smoked filterless cigarettes and I became a bohemian and I was doing off
off Broadway plays and I was doing workshops with Andre Gregory where we were doing plastiques,
where we were doing these body deconstructions for hours, sweating in weird lofts in the
meat packing district. And I was like, "This is my dream come true." I was getting paid
to be an actor, I was like, "My God, I'm an artist, I'm an actor, I'm living in New York;
this is awesome." But I was really, really unhappy. And that, I think that's when we
all go on journeys is when we get unhappy enough. All of a sudden, we get unhappy enough
and then the needle goes "eeeeh" and then we go, "I need to do something about this.
I need to figure out what that is." And it could be through therapy or through travel
or breaking up with someone or whatever we do to kind of unravel that, but I went, then
I describe this long spiritual journey. But basically, what, long story short is what
I came to realize is that I came back to my faith, but more importantly, what I learned
from that journey is that it's all the same thing. And this is supported by my faith;
I think it's supported by all the faiths in the world. And that's what that young man
who introduced me--I'm gonna call him Chip; I don't know what his name is--
[laughter]
>>Will: Leigh. Leigh.
>>Rainn: Don't care.
[laughter]
He--
>>Will: Terrible person. Terrible, terrible person.
>>Rainn: He's a terrible, terrible man.
>>Will: No, you're a terrible man.
[laughter]
>>Rainn: He, oh, I am?
>>Will: What? I'm sorry. Again, I was wasting time.
>>Rainn: So what I came back to is that it's all the same thing. Is that my basic, my personal
belief, which really doesn't have to do with the book--this is what I think. But it maybe
is filtered through the book a little bit, is that there's not any difference. We, as
human beings, long to transcend. We want more than just the material. I think even people,
even-- even Bill Maher or Christopher Hitchens, or any of the adamant God deniers, still are
yearning for something. They still are reaching for something; they're still doing more than
just eating and *** and *** and sleeping and accruing wealth. They're wanting more
than that. They're wanting to connect. They're wanting to create art. They're wanting to
make the world a better place. They're wanting to increase discussion, whatever that is,
but soulfulness is, I think, human beings wanting to transcend just the ordinary. And
that can be through making music and making art. That can be through exploring the limits
of science and technology and mathematics and striving to go beyond just the material
world. It can go through an expression of prayer or devotion; to be devout. And that,
this is an expression of the soul. So, I think that we all have souls, we all have that an
energy in us and about us that wants to do more than just be a monkey and this soul can,
I believe, when exercised and can grow and flourish and become more and more radiant
and that's really what life is all about. But I don't think that you need religion necessarily
to do it. I think that you just need to, one just needs to engage in this moment right
now, all that exists is [snaps finger] boom, here we are and there, it's gone. And boom,
and now, now, now, and this is where we live and that's, it's about the striving and the
striving creates soul. Oh my gosh, what'd you do?
[laughter]
You spilled that. Was it water?
OK, good.
[chuckles]
Is there anyone here on the Google janitorial staff?
>>Will: Can we get some paper towels and some of those free iPhones?
>>Rainn: The Google janitorial--
[laughter]
So, I dunno. This is wierd; this is your lunch hour? Is that what's going on? What happens
after this? You go back to work? What are you guys working on?
[laughter]
Are any of you guys taking pictures out on the streets of the things for the Google Maps?
[laughter]
Who here works on Google Maps? Who here works on Google App-, Apps?
[chuckles]
Who works on the search engine? Who works on the servers?
[chuckles]
Who works in the cafeteria? Who works on the phone? Nobody? You do? You're the one person.
[laughter]
What else does Google do? YouTube?
>>Will: Keep going, Rainn. This is gold. This is gold. Keep going.
[laughter]
>>Rainn: Who works, who works on YouTube's?
[Will laughs]
All right. Yeah.
>>Will: I have a thought. I saw a guy speak last night named Slavoj Zizek. Do you know
that guy?
>>Rainn: No.
>>Will: A Slovenian philosophy guy. He wrote, he has a great book called "In Defense of
Lost Causes," and he did a great thing called "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema," which is
unbelievable; it's great stuff, yeah.
>>Rainn: Oh yeah, I've heard about that book, yeah.
>>Will: But he was saying, he was quoting Kierkegaard last night and I thought of you
and the Baha'i thing, because he was saying-- Kierkegaard said, in the 1800s or whenever
Kierkegaard was, that any divinity student, any theology student could lay out Christianity
much better than Christ ever did; they could describe the whole thing. It very clearly
made it all seem like just an ongoing conversation that the world religions are this, this long,
rich, deep debate moving toward ever--I don't know how to, I don't know what to put after
"ever," but toward clarity and toward some, not final vision, but a fullest vision.
>>Rainn: Yeah, and the fullest vision, I think, they-- I think religion does an awful lot
of damage in the world, but I think that religion, I think that we as a society right now, we're
throwing the baby out with the bath water in terms of religion; just saying like, "Well,
it's all a bunch of crap." And that's easy to say when you see what's done in the name
of religion, but it's also easy to just throw the baby out with the bath water and not notice
that there are some things about religious faith that are beautiful and true and lasting.
>>Will: Yep.
>Rainn: In the same way that there are things about science and art that are beautiful,
true and lasting. So--.
>>Will: No, that's, he also, this guy, Zizek, also had an interesting point, which was,
and I couldn't agree more in that it seems like that wonder is the, that's the important
thing--
>>Rainn: Mm-hmm.
>>Will: and that's not knowing and wonder and striving toward--there must be reasons
and great, grand, beautiful reasons. But he was saying--
>>Rainn: Well, I think that's what--hold that thought-- what this book--
what life's big questions does, is hopefully it engages that sense of wonder and the sense
of asking. And again, yearning and searching, because I think that the easiest thing, I
guess what I say, what I'm all about is that the easiest thing in the world to do is to
be cynical. It's an easiest fallback position to know it all, to be over it, to be cut off
from, to be withdrawn from, to know better than others, to be pissy and sarcastic and
all of those things. Like, it's a really easy position to be in. It's actually really hard
to be present, engaged and open-hearted. And, but I think that's what we can all aspire
to. And I think that engaging in the questions helps us get there. Does that make sense?
You guys didn't think you were gonna get this kind of talk, did you?
[laughter]
When I started on "The Office", we had so many--, John Krasinski--
>>Will: Just a quick thing. So, you're on this show, "The Office", in which you guys
all play people, you work in this office. Was that in the script? Or was that something
you came up with on the fly?
[laughter]
So, I, we should take some questions if people have questions.
>>Rainn: Yeah, good.
>>male #1: Hi, Rainn and Will.
>>Rainn: Hi.
>>male #2: I have a question about heartbreak and if this is part of the book and what your
take on it is and how it affects the SoulPancake and if you've gone through it and that kind
of thing. I don't know if that's in scope, but I hope you have some thoughts on this,
not that I've dealt with this myself.
[laughter]
>>Rainn: Do you, do you have something you need to get off your chest?
[laughter]
>>male #2: I was just waiting for you guys to get here, you know? I just got a lot going
on.
>>Rainn: What's her name? What's her name?
>>member #2: My name's Ryan.
>>Rainn: No, what's her name?
>>member #2: Oh, oh.
[laughter]
>>Rainn: Or his name, I don't know.
>>male #2: Kim.
>>Rainn: Really?
>>male #2: No.
[laughter]
This is on YouTube. I can't do that.
>>Rainn: I had, I experienced heartbreak not far from this building. My first real girlfriend
was named Catherine and Will, actually, was our roommate and this is in the late '80s.
And, Catherine, she was from New Zealand and she, she broke up with me and that sucked
and I was heartbroken and she lived on 19th, we used to live on 19th, between 8th and 9th,
right up here. And then, I stalked her for a long while because I was sure she was seeing
someone else and I would stand across the street from her, on the stoop, and I cried
and I wept and I had tears pouring down my face and I was like, "Why, God, why?" And
it's--
[Rainn laughs]
Will: it was the 6th.
[laughter]
And so, I've experienced heartbreak. Yeah, sure.
>>male #2: Any advice that you might give the people? Ok, it's done.
[laughter]
>>Rainn: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Boom. How's that? You can quote me on that.
[laughter]
>>male #3: Hi.
>>Rainn: Hi.
>>male #3: Why do you think there's such a strong link between funny people and comedians
and wanting to talk about philosophy and large issues like this?
>>Rainn: Is there?
>>male #3: I think so.
>>Rainn: Is there really? Funny people wanting to talk about--
>>male #3: It seems like a connection that I make a lot.
>>Will: Stephen Fry is a good example of that.
>>Rainn: Yeah. Stephen Fry? That's very true. Stephen Hawking.
[laughter]
Well, I think that there's something to the, I don't know, it can get, it can sound very
pretentious very easily to talk about comedy and pain, but you have to know something of
pain to experience comedy or be funny, I think? Except for Krasinski; I don't think he's ever
had any pain in his life.
[laughter]
And he's a very funny human being. So, that's all bets are off with him, and ravishly handsome.
[laughter]
Ravishingly.
>>male #3: Does he like philosophy?
>>Rainn: Sorry?
>>male #3: Does he like philosophy?
>>Rainn: Nah, I don't think he'd give a rat's *** about philosophy.
[laughter]
>>Will: I know you don't care what I think, but I actually--
[laughter]
I haven't thought about this. Not you, but--
>>Will: but I actually think, when I think of really funny people that I know, I think
from a very early age, people who know, feel just some kind of discomfort in life or find
life painful in some way, start to very deeply need to transform any situation into another
situation, which I think is kind a root of both philosophy and comedy in a way of--
>>Rainn: Yeah.
>>Will: of seeing a thing and then tilting it four degrees so that it's another thing.
>>Rainn: I think that there's something to comedy, too, about, I was always interested
in like, "Why is something funny? Like, that's really, why is that funny? Why is it funny?"
It wasn't enough for it to just be funny, and I think that same question of like, "Why
is that funny?" or then it goes to like, "Why is that true?" or "Why do I feel that way?"
There's that same kind of searching thing. I know, I don't know. Does that make sense?
Not really. Sorry, I couldn't answer your question very well.
[laughter]
This is weird.
[laughter]
>>male #4: Hi. I'm a big fan of Krasinski.
>>Rainn: Are you a male model? You a male model?
>>male #4: No.
[laughter]
>>Rainn: You're in; you're in my Land's End catalog.
[laughter]
>>male #4: No, I'm not, actually.
>>Rainn: I just saw you. You were selling a tote bag. Turn around and just go like this.
>>male #4: I left it over on my chair over there, actually. Sorry. I'm a big fan of the
show and looking for the book, I--
>>Rainn: Of this show?
>>male #4: This show's great. I haven't read your book, but this makes me interested in
it. But it also, you seem very different then Dwight Schrute right now and I'm wondering
if you could tell us like, where your motivation for that character came? It seems different
from Rainn Wilson, so I'd be interested to know how you, how you developed Dwight Schrute
as a character.
>>Rainn: Umm, yeah. Well, a lot of Dwight Schrute I stole from the guy who played Gareth
on the English show, who is brilliant, Mackenzie Crook. And there's, a lot of my family is
kind of trailer trash, South Seattle, muscle car types, and --
I really wanted an aspect of that to be part of Dwight. And I went to high school with
a guy named Chris Cole, who had the same Dwight glasses and, only they were, they had the
word "Battlestar Galactica" on the sides of them.
[laughter]
I am not making that up. This is 1980, people. 1980, he had Battlestar Galactica Dwight glasses
back then; he loved fencing, Dungeons and Dragons, he went into the Army as a coronet
player.
[laughter]
And so I grew up with a lot Dwight.
>>Will: He was actually killed, which was a sad story.
>>Rainn: What's that?
>>Will: He was decapitated, yeah. Sad story.
>>Rainn: And he was decapitated. No. And he's killed hundreds of people in wars.
[laughter]
No, not really. But, so, I don't know. I feel like its part of me; it's part of my roots
and stuff like that and I play Fascists good and I play nerds good and so I blended the
two and it kinda worked out.
[laughter]
So. Thanks. Good luck with that modeling career. Yeah?
>>female #1: So, you mentioned that you used to go to Capitol Hill and rap some philosophy
and I was wondering if you could give us a demo.
You have that thing? Do you have that thing? That rap? That one rap? Yeah. It's on my Posterous
account; you can find it. Someone'll look that up. So, we'll do it. Thanks. Thank a
lot, jerk.
[laughter]
Yeah?
>>female #2: Hi.
>>Rainn: Hi.
>>female #2: I was really gonna try to work out some sort of soullessness of offices and
trying to bring Google into a really soulful place, but really, I just wanted to give you
this Droid that we made of Dwight for Halloween. It's a zombie, so if you wanna talk about
the soullessness of zombies that's fine, too.
>>Rainn: Of zombies? Yeah.
>>female #2: This is for you.
>>Rainn: Why don't zombies eat other zombies? I mean, they're wandering around-- thank you
very much. This is umm.
[clapping]
They're wandering around; there's plenty of zombies out there. Do you know what I mean?
Like, just like, they're like "urrrrr." Another zombie, urrrrr. Why does it, it doesn't make
any sense. Yes.
>>female #3: Hi. How come you didn't ask me if I'm a model?
[laughter]
>>Rainn: Umm.
>>female #3: No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Sorry. So, I think that, as an individual,
it's pretty easy to question religion and explore lots of different things, but I'm
curious as a parent, how that translates into raising your kid and how you've chosen to
incorporate that into raising a child?
>>Rainn: Well, that's a very good question. I think that I learned so much from my son
and I learned so much about what I was talking about, about being fully engaged in the stuff
of life from my son because he's incapable of being cynical. He's incapable of being
over something. I mean, I think very soon they start to experience that as they learn
it from their peers and stuff like that, but everything that he sees is a little miracle.
I mean, it does, the way cereal floats in a bowl, the way that this screen is on an
angle, this and how they get the antennas in there and it, when you have children--most
of you won't because you'll be working your whole lives--
[laughter]
for Larry and Sergey-- but, I. So, I learn a ton from him, but I think that I believe
that our--, we owe it to our children to give them a spiritual education. And that can be
whether you're religious or not, but that spiritual education is to show them their
place in the universe, teach them about service, teach them virtues. There are eternal virtues
that work whether you're of a faith, a community, or not. Kindness, compassion, humility, truthfulness,
all of these things are, need to be fostered in a child and those are taught best at the
home, not necessarily in schools, although I think a lot of schools are moving in that
direction and it's a really good thing. And so, it's very important for me to engage my
son in that, in that spiritual education. And our, and all of our spiritual education
never stops, really. It's not something like, "Oh, I have my diploma in my spiritual education."
It continues going, so.
>>female #3: Thank you.
>>Rainn: Umm-hmm. Are you a model?
[laughter]
Don't you work for North Face? Take your hand off your hip.
[laughter]
>>male #5: Speaking of parenting, I was just wondering if your wife--
>>Rainn: We're not about to, what?
>>male #5: wondering if your wife is going to redeem her punch card for four more babies?
>>Rainn: Wait. What?
[laughter]
>>male #5: The joke is dead, nevermind.
[laughter]
>>Rainn: For four more, I don't underst-, I'm, I wish I knew what that meant.
>>male #5: The Office with Angela.
>>male #6: Angela.
>>Rainn: Ooohh!
[laughter]
Yeah, sit down.
[laughter and clapping]
What do you, what do you work on, man?
>>male #5: On Docs.
>>Rainn: On what?
>>male #5: Google Docs.
>>Rainn: I'm sorry.
Why don't you work on a Google Lasers?
[laughter]
Something really cool; Google Spacecraft. Google Genetics, Cloning.
[chuckles]
Yes.
>>male #7: Hi. So, you mentioned an interesting question, which was why are things funny?
How analytically do you approach that? Do you literally take a joke and rip it apart
and say like, "Oh, this is changed." Or, do you take a more philosophical approach to
it?
>>Rainn: Well, I think that's the magic of making art, is that you can philosophize about
it all you want, but then there's the ineffitable, enethible, intangible thing that happens that
is inexplicable. You can, as a musician; you can study like, why is something, why is a
melody moving? And you can diagram all these different melodies and you can write a melody,
but then ultimately it, you gotta hit a point where it kind of transforms and transcends,
and that's the, what's mysterious about the arts. And, do you think that's mysterious
about science or computer programming, too? Does it work that way? Can you figure it all
out with your head or does inspiration and intuition--there's a life's big question for
you-- does inspiration and intuition guide anything of what you do when you're programming
or creating something at a place like Google? Anyone?
>>male #7: Yeah.
>>Rainn: Yeah? How? You would seem to know the answer to that, I bet.
[laughter]
>>male #7: Strangely enough, I do not.
>>Rainn: You don't. Anyone? Who wants to speak to that? Yeah?
>>male #6: The people who create programming languages or programming tools try to that
by letting people express whatever ideas they have most eloquently or most optimally. So.
>>Rainn: Interesting. You look like, yeah, you got something to say there. Yeah?
>>male #8: So, we have things like codes, melds. Like, you take a look at like piece
of code and then like, you realize something is not, is fishy, but sometimes don't know
exactly what that is.
>>Rainn: Yeah.
>>male #8: And then that's like it's some sort of intuition you have, like when, at
least like when look at code. We actually try to formalize those codes, melds so it
becomes more analytical, but there are like, there is some--
>>Rainn: It's like Keanu Reeves when everything can turns into numbers, and he's like.
[laughter]
>>male #8: Something like that.
[laughter]
Yeah.
>>male #5: I think it's more like the other way; you anthropomorphize the code and--oh,
not anthropomorphize--you make it say like, this part smells bad. That's the way of saying,
"I don't like it," I guess.
>>Rainn: I don't speak any of that language, but yeah, do you have a question?
>>male #9: Yes, I do. So, you were speaking about the sense of wonder and that a lot of
musing on philosophy or religion really serves to answer questions that we cannot answer
adequately through other means. But as the per view of science and information increases,
these fears of religion or philosophies decreases. We no longer have to assume that every lightning
bolt falls for a reason and is targeted by an angry God. So, do you see, perhaps, the
shrinking of the role of religion in our life as a natural consequence of the expansion
of science? Are we here, as part of Google, killing wonder by giving people better, real
answers?
>>Rainn: That's an awesome question. Let's give him an applause for that question.
[applause]
Yeah, I'll speak to that. I'll speak to that. I think that, first of all, it's a kind of
arrogance to say that religious thought could be equated to like, "Oh, this angry God threw
a lightning bolt down." I think that that's really reductivist. I think that if someone
was talking about science and being like, "Oh, I put a magic thing in a test tube and
nyeh, nyeh, nyeh." No, science can cure cancer and we can heal people and we can make our
lives easier and better, like we have to be careful not to reduce both sides of the equation
because I think ultimately religion and science have to walk hand in hand. And by religion,
I don't mean organized, specific religions. I mean that again, that thought, that interest
in attuning with the eternal, or with the divine or transcending; what it is beyond
just being an eating, *** monkey. And so, I think that we're in a, our culture is
in a vast change right now. And definitely science is superseding religion and again,
religion isn't superstition, and that's different than religion, although certain religions
have superstitious elements still lodged within them, but I think that as we go forward as
a culture, I think we'll find, first of all, there's a couple of things that come to mind.
I don't think, and I'm not, I'm not scientist, but I don't think that science has the explanation
for everything. I think, I think we still don't know what gravity is. We still don't
know that light, what light is; it's still, it's a beam, it's a wave, it's a particle,
it's a; we don't know exactly what it is. You say, "Well, yes it is. It's this form
of--." No, but you can't, you could get the biggest light expert in the world and they
can't quite tell you. There's something still not there. We still don't know what the real
building blocks of matter is. I don't think that science, I don't think that's what science
is, it's providing the concrete answers in the same way that I don't think religion provides
the concrete answers. So, I think we're in this phase right now, societally, where science
is on the forefront and it's gonna keep going and that's great and more and more people
are gonna be like, because you hear people all the time saying, "I don't believe in religion,
I believe in science." It's like, "Well, ok. Let's see how science handles those broken
hearts. Let's see how science handles when someone dies, or when you're grieving. Or
when you feel immense love." Because science can't answer all of the questions of what
it is to be human. That we, but science is a beautiful expression of human. I think an
expression of the design. I think God's greatest creation is science and I think that they
will eventually, if humankind is to survive, that science and religion will be walking
hand in hand. And not even like, side by side, but we'll see that they're the same thing.
I think that ultimately that's what it's about; that art and science and religion, faith,
are all, they're all one thing. Again, it's that God essence that flows through all of
our molecules that seeks to transcend just this chair, so. Yeah.
>>Will: Rainn, your parents were driving. They had set out on a trip to, we should wrap
it up and show the trailer with the [inaudible].
>>Rainn: Oh, ok. Great. One more question and we'll wrap it up, yeah.
>>male #10: All right. I can't believe I have to follow that last question, but so, the
premise of The Office is that it's this--
[laughter]
yeah, we're dumbing it down a little bit, is that this office staff is being filmed
for this ongoing documentary or reality show?
>>Rainn: Yes.
>>male #10: I was just wondering, do the characters on the show watch this show? And if it hasn't
been released yet, will they?
>>Rainn: Yeah, we talk about that a lot on "The Office". I think that the documentary
crew just has eternal funding and they have--
[laughter]
two, two camera men and a couple sound guys and some producers and stuff like that and
they're just like, "Oh my God, I can't believe all the gold we're getting on this typical
American workplace. Let's just keep filming and filming and filming and filming." And,
but they did that on the English show, where on the very tail end of the English show.
The documentary on The Office had aired and they'd all become minor celebrities. We talk
about heading in that direction in "The Office", but as soon as you do that, you gotta end
the show. So, I'm not sure exactly when or how that would happen, but it would be a hell
of a lot of fun. If Dwight Schrute were a celebrity and you followed Dwight Schrute
around in his life and people were just showing up at his beet farm asking for autographs
cause they had watched "The Office" and they just can't believe that such a person exists,
so it's very metaphysical. It's much like the "SoulPancake" book.
[laughter]
And speaking of that, I hope you'll each pick up a few dozen copies for stocking stuffers
and let's show that little trailer we made.
>>Will: Do you wanna set it up for them?
>>Rainn: This is a documentary about people enjoying the "SoulPancake" book.
>>Will: No, I mean could you go back and set it up for us? Oh, ok.
[electric guitar plays]
[humming]
[applause]
>>Will: All right.
>>Rainn: Is that it? Who's in charge here? Is that it?
>>Will: We're good?
>>Rainn: Larry, Sergey, are we done?
[laughter]
Thank you guys so much for giving up your lunch period and having me and Will here.
His new play of Middletown, is at the Vineyard Theatre. I'm going tonight. You should all
go see it cause he's an absolutely genius playwright of the first rank and order and
your children will be performing scenes in drama class from Will Eno plays, so get to
know him now. Tear off a chunk of his sweater and thank you very much for having me.
[applause]