<p><em>New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.</em></p> <p>---</p> <p>Why the man behind "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" is a self-help junkie.</p> <p>Judd Apatow is one of the most prolific comedic minds in the industry. Recently, Apatow produced Peacock's buddy comedy <em>Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain</em> and Universal's romcom, <em>Bros,</em> starring and co-written by Billy Eichner. Apatow also directed, produced, and co-wrote with Pam Brady, the Netflix comedy <em>The Bubble</em> and produced and co-directed HBO Films' Emmy®-winning documentary <em>George Carlin's American Dream</em> with Michael Bonfiglio. His Netflix comedy special, <em>Judd Apatow: The Return</em>, released in 2017 and premiered to critical acclaim. Previous director credits include the Emmy®-award-winning documentary, <em>The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling</em>, <em>The 40-Year-Old Virgin</em>, <em>Knocked Up</em> and <em>The King of Staten Island</em>. He produced Academy Award®-nominated <em>The Big Sick</em> and <em>Bridesmaids</em>, as well as <em>Superbad</em>, <em>Pineapple Express</em> and <em>Anchorman</em>. For television, he executive produced <em>Crashing</em>, <em>Girls</em>, and <em>Freaks and Geeks</em>. Off screen, Apatow authored <em>Sicker in the Head</em>, a follow-up to his New York Times best-seller <em>Sick in the Head</em>.</p> <p><br /></p> <p><strong>In this episode we talk about:</strong></p> <ul> <li>The role of his parents' bitter divorce in his life and work</li> <li>The balance between creativity and ambition</li> <li>Why so many comedians are so neurotic</li> <li>His creative process, including some gems from the TV writer David Milch</li> <li>His relationship to panic, and a hilarious story about freaking out on weed</li> <li>The way he's started to understand the different voices inside of him</li> <li>His recent experiment with ayahuasca, and what he learned</li> <li>And the role of comedy when it feels like the world is on fire</li> </ul> <p><br /></p> <p><strong>Related Episodes:</strong></p> <p><a href="https://www.happierapp.com/podcast/tph/bill-hader" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bill Hader on Anxiety, Imposter Syndrome, and Leaning into Discomfort</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.happierapp.com/podcast/tph/duncan-trussell" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Duncan Trussell on: Being a Spiritual Omnivore, Whether Psychedelics Are a Bridge to the Divine, and How the Gates of Hell Are Locked From the Inside</a></p> <p><br /></p> <p><strong>Sign up for Dan's weekly newsletter</strong> <a href="https://bit.ly/3QtGRqJ" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>here</strong></a></p> <p><strong>Follow Dan on social:</strong> <a href="https://bit.ly/3tGigG5" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Instagram</strong></a><strong>,</strong> <a href="https://bit.ly/3FOA84J" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>TikTok</strong></a></p> <p><strong>Ten Percent Happier online</strong> <a href="https://bit.ly/46TZglY" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>bookstore</strong></a></p> <p><strong>Subscribe to our</strong> <a href="https://bit.ly/3FybRzD" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>YouTube Channel</strong></a></p> <p><strong>Our favorite playlists on:</strong> <a href="https://spoti.fi/3Qa8kMT" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Anxiety</strong></a><strong>,</strong> <a href="https://spoti.fi/3MjtMxF" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Sleep</strong></a><strong>,</strong> <a href="https://spoti.fi/3QvyA5J" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Relationships</strong></a><strong>,</strong> <a href="https://spoti.fi/3QxZASc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Most Popular Episodes</strong></a></p> <p><br /></p> <p><strong>Full Shownotes:</strong> <a href="http://www.happierapp.com/podcast/tph/judd-apatow" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.happierapp.com/podcast/tph/judd-apatow</a></p> <p><br /></p> <p><strong>Additional Resources:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Download the Happier app today: <a href="https://www.happierapp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.happierapp.com/</a></li> </ul> <p><br /></p>
Actionable Insights
1. Embrace Suffering for Growth
Accept that suffering is an unavoidable part of life and view difficulties as opportunities to learn, cultivate compassion, and build resilience. This mindset can transform your mood and make challenges more bearable.
2. Cultivate Inner Voice Awareness
Explore Internal Family Systems (IFS) to identify and understand the various “voices” or “parts” in your head, especially anxious or protective ones. Engage with these parts by understanding their intent and gently guiding them towards healthier strategies.
3. Practice Calming Breathwork
Utilize specific breathing techniques, such as exhaling twice as long as you inhale (e.g., inhale 4, exhale 8), to quickly calm your nervous system. This simple practice can help you return to yourself faster during stressful moments or to aid sleep.
4. Confront Panic with Acceptance
When experiencing panic or intense fear, practice acceptance and non-resistance rather than trying to push it away. Fully allowing yourself to feel the sensation can paradoxically make it dissipate more quickly.
5. Seek Support; Never Worry Alone
Immediately communicate your distress to a trusted person when anxiety or panic begins, as their supportive presence and empathy can be a massive calming agent. Do not isolate yourself when facing worries.
6. Leader’s Self-Complicity Check
As a leader, when team problems arise, first examine your own complicity or contribution to the situation. Frame issues through the lens of “how am I complicit in the conditions I don’t want?” rather than immediately blaming others.
7. Establish Consistent Creative Routine
Condition your brain for creativity by establishing a consistent daily writing or creative schedule, even if it’s just 20 minutes. This routine helps your mind know when it’s time to be creative, even if you start with “nonsense.”
8. Actively Seek & Discern Criticism
Embrace as much criticism as possible for your creative work, actively soliciting feedback from trusted peers and audiences. Pay close attention to recurring criticisms to identify genuine problems, but carefully discern which solutions align with your unique vision.
9. Cultivate Paradoxical Life View
Strive to simultaneously view life as both a dream (silly, not overly important) and something to be taken seriously (doing your best, engaging fully). This paradoxical perspective helps you care deeply while also lightening up.
10. Create Space for Inspiration
Allow for spontaneous creative insights by taking regular walks and intentionally trying not to think, or by approaching problems with a loose, open mindset from multiple angles. This creates the mental space for “bizarre inspiration” to strike.
11. Continuous Self-Help Learning
Maintain a habit of continuously reading Buddhist and self-help books to deepen your understanding of yourself and the world. This ongoing learning can provide tools and insights for personal well-being and growth.
12. Ask Difficult Family Questions
Work up the courage to ask difficult questions about past family dynamics or traumas, even years later, to gain understanding and heal long-standing assumptions. This can provide simple answers to things that have haunted you.
13. Lighten Up in Stressful Moments
Consciously remind yourself to “lighten up” and not take everything too seriously, especially when feeling overwhelmed or triggered. This simple thought can help reduce the intensity of negative emotions.
14. Reframe Setbacks as Creative Fuel
Cultivate a mindset that views personal setbacks, struggles, or “terrible things” as potential material for creative work or storytelling. This perspective can turn negative experiences into opportunities for artistic expression and relief.
15. Protect Quiet, Sacred Spaces
Actively seek out and protect moments of quiet connection to mystery or spirituality in your daily life, such as observing nature or experiencing a creative thought. Modern life constantly tries to pull you out of these sacred spaces.
16. Take Personal Marketing Responsibility
Do not solely rely on others for marketing your work; proactively promote your projects, especially for live appearances or smaller endeavors. This ensures your work reaches interested audiences and prevents potential humiliation.
17. Project Confident Leadership
As a leader in a creative environment, project an outward show of confidence and lightness of spirit to your crew and actors, even if you’re internally struggling. This helps maintain morale, productivity, and a positive working atmosphere.
18. Practice Kindness and Empathy
Embrace the simple yet profound advice to “just be nice” to others, recognizing that you don’t know what struggles people are going through. This fosters better relationships and a more compassionate approach to life.