"Tim Robbins"

The episode opens with the hosts discussing summer activities and their current locations, with Will in Italy and JB on a farm filming. Tim Robbins joins to discuss his multifaceted career in entertainment and activism. He explains how his father, folk musician Lee Robbins, inspired him to perform after witnessing audience reactions at age 3-4. Robbins details his athletic background, having played baseball throughout his life, mostly as third base, which helped him land the role in Bull Durham after he demonstrated his throwing ability to Kevin Costner during the callback. He also discusses his current athletic pursuits, including regular roller hockey games and softball.

Robbins explores his directorial work, beginning with Bob Roberts, a satirical film about a right-wing politician using folk music that proved prescient about celebrity-driven politics. He then made Dead Man Walking, which led him to become deeply involved in prison reform and rehabilitation work. For 20 years, Robbins has run the Actors Gang, a nonprofit that conducts seven-day intensive theater workshops in California state prisons using commedia dell'arte techniques to help inmates reconnect with suppressed emotions and build bridges across gang divisions.

On his current acting work, Robbins discusses his role in the Apple TV+ series Silo, praising the production's humane scheduling (10-hour days with rolling lunches) under executive producer Graham Yost, which contrasts with typical demanding film schedules. He reflects on learning from legendary directors like Clint Eastwood, who achieved efficiency through discipline and single takes rather than exhaustion.

Robbins addresses contemporary politics and society, revealing that at age 65, he retired from anxiety and daily opposition to political figures, recognizing that starting your day with hatred is destructive. He advocates for building movements through finding common ground rather than tribal purity, drawing parallels between prison yard dynamics and current social polarization. He emphasizes that good organizing requires understanding what diverse groups have in common despite disagreements.

The conversation touches on poker games the group played together in Los Angeles on Tuesday nights at Kyle Gass's house, where Robbins participated alongside the hosts. Finally, Robbins announces his new multimedia portal at timrobbins.com (launching September 1st) that will archive his personal video projects, interviews with figures like Johnny Cash and Kurt Vonnegut, his band the Rogues Gallery Band, his father's music, and his brother's film scores, alongside a forthcoming memoir.