Scott Stewart

Ep# 15 This Is Yu – Somebody Feed Phil – Phil Rosenthal

I’m Scott Stewart and I’m Carole Yu.

Welcome to Episode 15 of This Is Yu Podcast.

The voice you first heard is special guest Phil Rosenthal. 

He is the creator and host of “Somebody Feed Phil,” a hit series on Netflix, in which he explores his love of food and travel through his humorous and childlike wide-eyed wonder.

Phil provides an exclusive sneak peek into Season Three of his hit Netflix show. Then he inspires us with stories of his successes and failures in life and entertainment. He invigorates us with advice about maintaining humor in everyday life. And, of course we talk about male modeling, and his newly adopted Great Pyrenees puppy, Murray. 

Phil studied theater at Hofstra University on Long Island. He worked as an actor, writer, and director in New York, until he moved to Los Angeles in 1989.

After writing for series such as “Down the Shore” and “Coach”, in 1995, he created the hit comedy “Everybody Loves Raymond.” He was nominated for over 70 Emmy awards, winning 15, including the 2003 and 2005 awards for Best Comedy Series. 

Phil with his box of Cookies & Muffins freshly baked by Dara Yu of Food For Yu.

He has also won the 2002 Writers Guild Award for Excellence in Television Writing, and the peabody award for the 9/11 Telethon, America: A Tribute to Heroes.”

His first food travel series “I’ll have what Phil’s having” aired on PBS in 2015, for which he received a James Beard Award in 2016.

His most recent series “Somebody Feed Phil” follows his true love of bringing family, food, and travel to the table. In his own words, “Here’s what I’ve learned: food is what connects us, and Laughs are the cement.”

 Phil lives here in Los Angeles with his wife, two children, and newly adopted sweetest, cutest Great Pyrennees puppy, Murray, who has his own Daily Murray segment on Phil’s Instagram.

 After we talk to Phil, we have a new segment 7 reasons why you should eat chocolate.

 Thank you to Phil of “Somebody Feed Phil” again for your time and infectious positivity. We were so honored and appreciative that you gave us the gift of your presence and your insight. 

This is Carole, Phil, I will always refer back to this episode whenever I need a moment of inspiration and centering to keep my spirits up! Thank you for that.

We mentioned that we were dropping off some cookies to Phil. After he received them, he forwarded a photo with the cookies and told us “The Cookies are Phenomenal.” Go to our instagram @ThisIsYuOfficial to see that pic of Phil with those amazing Spelt Chocolate Chip cookies. We’re glad we could bring a little love to Phil and his family, because we definitely felt that love when we spoke with him.

 We’d love to hear your feedback on our podcast. Leave a message on the This Is Yu Hotline at 562-291-6037 We are always trying to improve and would love any constructive criticism, and of course, all the constructive compliments you want to give too!  Let us know what you’d like to hear us talk about, or any suggestions of guests too!

We all want to belong to a community, and connect, and we want to offer up our ears and hearts to you. 

Our home base is www.ThisIsYu.com

Instagram is @ThisIsYuOfficial

And last but not least, Our Facebook is … This Is Yu VIP Community

PHIL ROSENTHAL CONTACT INFO

philrosenthalworld.com

Twitter: @PhilRosenthal

Facebook: @philrosenthalofficial

Instagram: @Phil.rosenthal

Youtube: PhilRosenthalWorld

Lake Street Dive – Band mentioned by Phil – https://lakestreetdive.com/

Begin Transcription: Ep# 15 This Is Yu – Somebody Feed Phil – Phil Rosenthal

( Chef ) So how come you like chocolate so much? ( Phil ) I’m a human being? Why be alive if you can’t have chocolate?  

Scott

I am Scott Stewart

Carole

and I’m Carole Yu.    

Scott

Welcome to Episode 15 of This Is Yu podcast ( music ). The voice you first heard is special guest Phil Rosenthal. He is the creator and host of Somebody Feed Phil. A hit series on Netflix, in which he explores his love of food and travel through his humorous and childlike, wide eyed wonder.

Carole

Phil provides an exclusive sneak peek into Season three of his hit Netflix show. Then he inspires us with stories off his successes and failures in life and entertainment. He invigorates us with advice about maintaining humor in everyday life. And, of course, we talk about male modeling and his newly adopted Great Pyrenees puppy Murray. Whoof, whoof. After we talk to Phil, we have a new segment, seven reasons why you should eat chocolate.

Carole

Phil studied theater at Hofstra University on Long Island. He worked as an actor, a writer and a director in New York until he moved to Los Angeles in 1989.

Scott

After writing for such series as Down the Shore and Coach. In 1995 he created the hit comedy Everybody Loves Raymond. He was nominated for over 70 Emmy Awards, winning 15 including the 2003 and 2005 awards for best comedy series.

Carole

He has also won the 2002 Writers Guild Award for excellence in television writing and the Peabody Award for the 911 Telethon America. A Tribute to Heroes.

Scott

His first food Travel series I’ll Have What Phil’s having aired on PBS in 2015 for which he received a James Beard Award in 2016.

Carole

His most recent, series Somebody Feed Phil, follows his true love of bringing family and food and travel to the table. In his own words, “Here’s what I’ve learned, food is what connects us and laughs are the cement.” Welcome, Phil.  

Phil

Hi.  

Carole

Hey, this is Scott

Scott

and Carole.

Phil

Hello.  

Carole

Hello.

Scott

Okay, we’ve got a first question here for you Phil, we’re really excited that you’re on the show. Thank you so much.

Phil

Thank you.

Scott

We were re watching your Lisbon episode while you were live tweeting.  

Phil

Yes. 

Scott

Which was great, by the way.

Phil

Was it all right, compared to other people who do this thing because I’m new.

Scott

No, you did a great job. It was excellent.  

Phil

Thanks.  

Scott

So during the process of that Dara, our daughter comes into the room and says, Damn, his eyes are piercing. There’s a lot of talk online that you’re a handsome Ryan Gosling – Question, have you thought of giving it all up for the exciting world of male modeling?

Phil

Hehe. I think about it every day. You know, I get up, look in the mirror and I go, you are wasting your time, hidden from the world. You should really share this gift with the people. And if my wife and daughter were hearing this now, they would either be laughing as hard as they could or throwing up.  

Carole

Okay, Well, having met so many talented and really skilled chefs, what did you see as being a common trait among them?

Phil

They’re all artists, They’re all what I realized is that you know, I’m a writer, and I realized, if something tastes delicious, if you’re if you go to a restaurant, you order something from the menu, and it’s fantastic and innovative and wonderful. First of all, it’s a work of art. But more than that, it’s great writing. Writing a recipe is writing, putting two ingredients that you would never think of together and that go together so well that it becomes this delicious creation that is writing. And I realized that all great chefs are great writers,

Scott

Right. That’s so true. That’s one of the things I really like about you is you have this amazing way of seeing the world differently, that we’ve all seen so many hundreds of thousands of times. And you just add a whole new element  a whole new vision. to things.

Phil

Oh, thank you. I think we all have this perspective. I always tell young writers that your art form your writing your way of contributing to the world is everything that you have experienced filtered through the way you think. That is what we have to offer its what you each have to offer. It’s what everyone listening individually has to offer your life experience filtered through the way you think, and that makes us all unique.

Scott

Yeah, absolutely. To me, one of the most beautiful things about your show, besides the cinematography on Somebody Feed Phil on Netflix is your childlike wonder and curiosity. It’s so pure. How have you been able to maintain that purity throughout your life?

Phil

Uh, I guess that’s a natural curiosity and an appreciation for how lucky I am to get to do this, I and and that informs everything I try to do. And and that’s what travel does for you, because everything, then is new to you. Every time you travel, there’s something to discover, and and what I love most about travel is not just the travel for travel sake, but when you come home, your perspective has changed, and I always use this as an example. The first time I went to Europe, I was 23 years old and I was in Paris France and I was walking down the street names, marveling at how beautiful the street was. Look at the trees just on this block. I couldn’t believe how gorgeous it was, and then I went home, having been changed by the whole experience. The people I met, of course, in the food I ate in the scenery of Paris and how gorgeous it was and I went home to my apartment in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan, which is nothing like Paris. But I walk down the street and for the first time, I noticed those trees. Look at this. We have beautiful trees too they’re different, but they’re also beautiful. So what travel does is it awakens your senses to the world around you, no matter where you are. After having seen something to compare your life to, right, it’s different from yours.

Carole

Yeah, exactly. It’s very easy when you’re in a situation all the time in your life. You start to overlook things. You don’t appreciate the beautiful things that are around you, and you start to become ungrateful or not ungrateful. But you just don’t become grateful for the things that are around you.

Phil

We take life for granted. That’s the lesson of the great Thornton Wilder play Our Town, which I recommend everybody seeing at least once in their life or reading. If you can’t do that, Our Town, it’s about this very thing, the mundane things in our life that we take for granted and how we don’t know that how valuable and thrilling they are until they’re taken away. And we’re all experiencing this right now. and it will be over. People are gonna have a newfound appreciation for life.

Carole

Yeah, it’s It’s definitely been eye opening, staying at home. It gives us a lot of time to really reflect upon all of our relationships on ourselves. And I’ve really found that that has been time which has been, you know, we feel that it’s been unfortunate that this is happening throughout the world, the Corona virus, but it really has given us a lot of time to really reflect and look inside.

Phil

We have to look at what we can take away from this. What what the good part can be because first of all, it’s horrific the sickness, the death, that the horrible loss of loved ones, it’s just unimaginable. It’s terrible for those of us who aren’t experiencing that, however, there is a takeaway that can be positive in your life, and that is appreciation and never taking anything for granted again. Now I know human nature. We’re gonna feel that for about two days and we’ll be back to the way we are. But we have to remember to try to hold on to this and the thing you’re talking about, the show that you seem to like is the fact that I have held on to this now. It’s not hard to do if you’re lucky enough to be me in these situations. But even without the show, I’ve lived long enough to know that that is the secret of life gratitude, appreciation and a sense of curiosity and wonder. That’s the secret.

Carole

So is there anything that you do in regards to those things? Gratitude. Do you keep gratitude, journals, or how do you keep that foremost in who you are?

Phil

Well, I’m not Superman. I get depressed like everybody else. I don’t appreciate things all the time. This is something as I’m saying it to you, I’m wanting to remember myself, and it takes a little effort. It takes a little bit of, you know, concentration. I can’t say that I practice any journal keeping or anything like that. I try to meditate when I can. Before we got the puppy, I was meditating every morning. But now the puppy, the puppy is my meditation. Raising a puppy takes your full attention. It’s like having a baby, so there’s not a lot of time to meditate. But just going for a walk with the dog around my block. I look at the flowers. I look at the trees. I look at the puppy. I look at other people who are six feet away from me on the other side of the street. And I am grateful. I’m grateful number one to be alive and still healthy. And I’m grateful for everything in my life. And when you have that the world is better. It’s just that simple.

Carole

Well, our dog, Momo, has a question for Murray.  

Phil

Yes.  

Carole

What are your favorite kitchen dropping?

Phil

You mean the ones that Murray isn’t leaving us himself? Any speck of food you don’t… we found because the puppies teething. He’s about, he’s gonna be 14 weeks tomorrow. And so he’s like, he’s like Jaws coming at us, literally leaping at us with jaws snapping like he’s got his teeth are, so you know, it must hurt to be teething, right? We asked a trainer. They said you need frozen marrow, bone marrow, bones. I’m like, Yeah, I don’t know how easy that’s gonna be to get today. We’re not going to the supermarket looking for this, but we found some, uh carrot sticks in the fridge and those air cold gave him one today to try. And that seems to have worked. It seems to have, you know, gotten him occupied. He likes the carrot. You never know what’s gonna work. And sometimes it works for 10 minutes and then they’ll never work again with the dog. Right? But for now, the carrot stick is the big find of the day.

Carole

That’s a that’s a good ah, good tip for teething dogs.  

Scott

On the topic of food. If you were a type of food, what type of food would you be?

Phil

Chocolate!

Carole

Me, too.  

Scott

We’ve seen you, dig into a lot of your share of chocolate on the show.

Phil

I’m a chocolate freak I say, if it’s not chocolate, it’s not dessert.

Carole

How do you find local food experts in the places that you go to?

Phil

Oh, that’s pretty easy now, Uh, first of all, I’ve got a wonderful team, the same production team that did Mr Bourdain’s shows. So they have boots on the ground in in every country on Earth, so they know the the hot spots. And in each city they know the people in each city some of them they’ve used before when Mr Bourdain was doing his shows and sometimes you used the same people. But everyone has access to experts on their phone. You can Google best food tour of Rome, right? And you’re gonna find experts. And then you can fine the reviews that this person got and read something about them. There’s many, many, you know, the whole world’s available tow us now on our phones on the Internet. So it’s easy. You could do your own research. You know, half the research are these experts that we use, and the other half of the research is just me Googling stuff and finding out, where’s the best place to eat in each city we cross our references and and we talked to the people and then always leave room in each city and each schedule for serendipity. There might be a place we’re going for khao soi in Thailand and someone will say that’s not the best khao soi, This is the best khao soi, you got to go here and sometimes we’ll try it if we have time and sure enough, that’s the part that makes it in the show.

Carole

That’s what happened in Lisbon with, ice cream and pizza and sausages, right?

Phil

Completely serendipitous. It’s one of my favorite scenes ever, because you could tell it was completely spontaneous. Now, not every spontaneous thing works out as great as that one did. Like I don’t know that wonderful character Alessandro was gonna pop in to the scene. But look what happened.

Scott

I just have a question. I want to sort of get into your earlier life. From your time with Cue ‘N Curtain your high school’s drama club…

Phil

Wow!

Scott

What is one of your favorite memories that stands out above the rest?

Phil

Being in Cue ‘N Curtain at Clarkstown High School North.  

Scott

Yep.  

Phil

I’ll tell you, I was a very short and skinny kid, and I was somewhat of a nerd and an outcast. I felt in regular school I didn’t have many friends. I was even picked on and having this theater group, you know, we all have this, this place where this extracurricular activity feels like where you belong, and it’s an indescribable joy to fit in there and to realize that oh, people are laughing at things that I say or the way I do things, and this is a great outlet for expression, and it’s so much fun, to have other kids who not only aren’t hitting you, but they like you. You’re going to do this show together. And once you do that, once you make something, whether it be sports or theater, art class or the chess club, once you fit in with a group, that’s everything. And that, to me, was the key. It was the friendships and the fun we had in making something that worked was wonderful. So it gave me a direction in life. I owe everything to that.

Carole

Definitely. You found your people?

Phil

Exactly. And it was fun and it felt like, oh, this is what I was meant to do was to try to be funny,

Scott

Right. That ties in, actually, my next question with your book, You’re Lucky You’re Funny – How Life Becomes A Sitcom. Growing up, which three stand up comics influenced your sense of humor the most. And did you ever do stand up?

Phil

A great question! I’m going to say that I loved everyone that I ever watched on TV, who was funny off the top of my head. I’m gonna say Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Bill Cosby, Don Rickles, Jack Benny, Jackie Gleason and Art Carney on The Honeymooners. I mean, I could go on and on, but these are the first ones that are coming to mind. And then the great writers like Norman Lear and Carl Reiner and the Sid Caesar Show that changed my life when I saw clips from Your Show of Shows and all the writers who worked on that and Larry Gelbart, Neil Simon, of course, these were all my heroes and and I just ah, I wanted to emulate them. And I wanted to be like them and really everyone that I saw Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Cheech and Chong had every comedy record that was made, and I would listen to them over and over and over and learned them.

Scott

Yeah, exactly. I grew up in Toronto, Canada, and they had this show The Sunday Night Funnies, and I think it was on from, like, 9 to 11 and my brother and I, we would go to bed. We had to be in bed by at that time, like eight o’clock. We kill an hour in bed and then, from 9 to 11. We would listen to all those comedians because we didn’t really have money at the time when we were kids, you know, had paper routes or something,  And we just got to listen to all this comedy. We got so excited for Sunday night, Just a lie in bed for two hours and you just heard all these comedians, all this different material and it was fantastic. I think it really really shaped my sense of humor, anyway.

Phil

That’s great. You know, I would tell people to… it’s all out there. It’s all accessible. If you like comedy, there’s an entire world that maybe came before you that’s well worth knowing, Uh, you know, I try to tell my kids that, you know, life didn’t begin just as you were born. There’s a whole world before you and it’s worth checking out,

Scott

Right. I do want to know if you’ve ever done stand up.

Phil

I tried it once when I was 19 at a local club that had, ah, open mic night so there would be a trumpet player and then a saxophone player. And then I got up and did jokes and it was very odd. It went OK, I think. But I was so nervous and I was so used to being in plays and having the audience sit there and watch and respectfully… you know, engage that being in this bar in this club where a few tables in the front they were there to see the show. But the rest of the bar behind them was very noisy and glasses clinking and stuff, and it was so distracting was distracting to me, let alone the people sitting there. And I had a choice to make. Do I want to get used to this, or should I stick to my, uh, plays that I’m doing? This was in high school in college, and I decided to stick to my theater stuff and not pursue that anymore because it was so, uh, nerve racking. It was really… I have the utmost respect for comedians who can who can do this and overcome all the obstacles and the bravery that they have to do it every night.

Carole

Well, you definitely have chosen an amazing path, and we love to watch you. So what can we expect from Season 3 of Somebody Feed Phil which returns this May 2020 on Netflix.

Phil

That’s right. Uh, there’s gonna be a few more American cities this time because first of all, I realize that a lot of people can’t afford to travel overseas. But more importantly, I believe you can travel in your own town. I believe that you can find wonderful foods that you never had before ethnic restaurants, all kinds of people from other country who have things to share with you. And the cuisine is the perfect place to start. You’re literally taking in that culture. So it’s like traveling without leaving your town. And, ah, that’s a good way to start. And America is great because of all the immigrants that built this place and and live in this place. And it’s well worth exploring American cities. So we have a few more of those this season for people.

Scott

That’s amazing. We’re super excited for that.

Phil

Yeah, me too. Me too. You still go far away? I can’t. I’m not allowed to tell you yet where we go. Netflix likes to keep that a surprise, but there’s gonna be five episodes coming in May 2020. And then another five that we’ve already shot that’ll be released further down the road.

Scott

Would you say that would be in in this year.

Phil

That would be Season Four. I’m guessing, if I had to guess, it would be the Fall 2020 or early Winter 2021.

Scott

Excellent. Looking forward to that. That’s great. I have a question here for you. What drink was invented at Bryant’s Cocktail Lounge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The blank blank was invented as an ice cream drink?

Phil

Egg cream. No root beer float?

Scott

I can give you a hint if you want.  

Phil

Okay,  

Scott

It was on the Dublin episode when you were pouring Guinness beer. You had a little story to tell.

Phil

Oh, The Pink Squirrel.

Scott

( Ding Ding Ding ) Excellent. Yeah,

Phil

Tell the people what’s in that because no one’s gonna want it after they hear.

Scott

Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. It has 3/4 of an ounce of creme de noyaux,  which is an almond taste, and it gives it like a pink color than 3/4 of an ounce of white creme de cacao and then an 1 and 1/2 ounces of heavy cream and was popular from the 1940’s to the 1970’s. I mean, I’ve worked in restaurants and bars my whole life and I’d never heard of that drink before.

Phil

I swear to you, the very first, my very first moment as a bartender, a woman asked me for that drink. That was the very first order that I was lucky enough to take as a bartender. And I had no idea. And I looked in my Mr Boston, remember Mr Boston guide?

Scott

Exactly. 

Phil

How to make drinks, And I looked on the p for pink. I looked under s for squirrel. I looked on the r for rodent drinks. I couldn’t find this drink. And I went back to the lady and said… and people were clamoring at the bar for drinks. You know, when I was, it was hectic and crazy, and I was petrified. And I said, Uh, excuse me, ma’am, would you do me a favor and order something else? I have no idea how to make a Pink Squirrel. And she had mercy on me and took a gin and tonic, which is very easy to make.

Scott

Yeah, I love that story. That was great!

Carole

Phil, what is something that you’ve failed at? What was a personally challenging time in your life? And how did you maintain your humor?

Phil

Wow. Uh, there are times when I don’t maintain my humor. There are frustrating times in life, and I’m like everybody else. I get mad, I get sad. I get you know, I yell at the wrong person because I’m frustrated. You know, I’ve had professional failures where I believed in a show that I wanted to do when it didn’t work. And and I get so angry at the at the system, you know, the network or the studio, or collaborators. And you just get you know, who’s the cynic who said the problem with the world is other people, right? I’ve had those moments, I guess all I can say is you’re gonna go through those moments and then if you’re smart, you forget about them and say next. Let’s move on. What you gonna do dwell about? I mean, I worked my very… one of my very first successes turned into a failure because of some terrible behind the scenes conflicts with the people who I created a theatrical show with in New Yorker, it was the very first success that we ever had, and it was a big off Broadway smash, and then I noticed they were firing the people who were getting attention. The center of the group, they wanted to hang on to the attention for themselves. And so they started firing people who they didn’t either personally like or they felt it was getting too much notice, and I might have fallen into both categories. I was fired from the very show I helped create, and I thought that at the time this was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I was suddenly not only cut out of this artistic high point that I helped to make this thing that I loved, but I was out of a job and I was completely, you know, alone. Destitute at that 27 years old. I didn’t know what I would do. So, of course, like everything else. People, I’m sure have these stories. The worst thing that ever happened to me, of course, turned into the best thing that ever happened to me. Why? Because it forced me to write something else. I already showed I could write a little bit. And I wrote a screenplay with another friend of mine and we sold that screenplay and that was my, that was my entree to Hollywood, really. And and then I found a writing partner in Los Angeles and I started writing spec scripts. You know what spec scripts are right up where you write for no money on speculation. You’re just writing and then you’re sending your script around. So it’s not for money, that’s what a spec script is. You’re writing it on speculation that you hope you will get something. It’s like an audition. If you’re an actor, it’s your script that proves that maybe you can write and we wrote things and and you know, it took a while. But then we got hired on a sitcom and that that was the beginning. But if I had stayed in that play, none of that would have happened.

Scott

And that sitcom that you were just referring to was that Coach?

Phil

No, that was already three or four sitcoms in.

Scott

Oh wow!

Phil

The first few that we worked on you never heard of.

Scott

But you just kept going. You knew like that was enough to give you guys inspiration or you knew you had something there. It was just a matter of honing it. Keeping in the trenches and moving forward.

Phil

Listen, most things fail, right? Especially in show business. Most things fail, and you have to understand that if you’re an actor and you audition, you might have hundreds of auditions before you get that one part.

Scott

Yeah, exactly. It’s getting kind of crazy, now. I had… ah do acting also, and I had an audition for a Budweiser commercial the other day, so I spent a bunch of time putting it together. It was because of the Corona Virus. It was gonna be all done online. Got it’ll put together, spend a bunch of time, uploaded it to the casting agency and then noticed they didn’t even download the file. There’s just too many people, so I totally relate to what you’re saying on that.

Phil

Listen that it’s the most sought after job in the world, and anyone, anyone, literally anyone can say I’m an actor or I’m a writer, right?

Scott

Right, and they do!

Phil

And so the competition is fierce.

Scott

When it hits, it’s almost like winning the lottery, you know, it just takes you out of that restaurant bar job, and it propels you into some sort of state of now we actually have money and I can do things that I’ve been struggling through all these years.  

Phil

Absolutely.  

Scott

Tell us about your 2016 James Beard Award. You’re the winner for television program on location.

Phil

That was for the precursor to Somebody Feed Phil. That was called I’ll Have What Phil’s Having, the same show. It was just done for PBS with a different name, and we did six of those, and we won the James Beard Award for food and travel show on location. So that was, you know, spectacular. I felt as happy about that is winning the Emmy Awards for Everybody Loves Raymond because this isn’t really my field. And so I was so honored to be chosen for that, I was just thrilled. I was thrilled because it really is. You know that the Somebody Feed Phil’s show, I’ll Have What Phil’s Having. These were kind of the culminations of, everything I’ve learned in life about how to make a show. It’s just now in the service of everything I love about life, meaning the show’s about family, friends, food travel and laughs, which just happened to be my favorite things in the world.

Scott

Yeah, Carole and I actually we came across that on PBS a while back. And that’s what got us. I think excited and put you on our radar. You can see the natural progression from that series into your Netflix series. It just seems like you’ve really honed it down. It’s interesting because Carole I were rewatching some episodes just for this interview. We had thought how was structured, there seems like there’s definitely structure in your show.  

Phil

Yeah.

Scott

I guess that just comes from you pulling out a structural system that has worked in the past. You’ve been doing a hit show, and then you just learned so much from that. And now you’ve transitioned it into the Netflix show.

Phil

Well, thanks, I always thought that the difference was, now we have ah, little bigger budget. So we got a theme song that I’m in love with and, uh, the cameras are little better. That’s about it. Hopefully, the more you do anything, you hopefully get better at it. So I try to do that. But, uh, I think it’s the same show, don’t you?

Carole

We do, I do I think it is. I I also love that theme song. We were watching it last night, and what we like is it seems to have a tie back to Everybody Loves Raymond in terms of…

Phil

That’s right.

Carole

It has music that has a sitcom kind of feel. It’s very upbeat…

Phil

That’s exactly right.

Carole

Happy you’re walking up the hill. It’s just a very joyous song.

Phil

Lake Street Dive, everybody. www.LakeStreetDive.com I want people to know that group because they’re tremendous group and all their music is available online, even, uh, to download. There’s obviously CDs and stuff to buy, but everybody downloads music now. So look for Lake Street Dive, all their albums are fantastic.

Carole

I loved it.

Phil

Should I do some more of those you think live Tweeting?

Carole

Oh, yeah, definitely. That was really fun. The Instagram live after was was really, really awesome that you brought in special guests. It was great.

Scott

Just from Scott’s point of view here, Phil, What I really liked about the live tweeting was I liked how you’d give, like, extra information about the people. Because when I’m watching your show, sometimes I’m going, you know, like, who is this guy married to or what did he do before? You know, you ask people about where they come from, and it’s great because you just add that extra dimension to it. The live Tweeting is great.

Phil

Okay, great, thank you. That’s helpful. That’s a hopeful note to look for now on I… because what you do is you kind of you can’t if you try to write as you’re watching, everything comes too fast and you’re trying to look at people’s comments at the same time and watch the show and do that. So you have to watch the show in advance, write down some thoughts and kind of store them in the drafts section of Twitter and have those ready to go so that you can hit, send that the right moments in the show and then, ah, maybe add stuff as you think of it, or you get a comment. Does that makes sense?

Carole

Definitely. You’ve got homework.

Phil

Yes, it’s homework. Yes, but what else do I have to do? I’m here in the house.

Carole

Exactly. Next question is, who is someone that you would love to have a meal with? What would you eat and where would it be?

Phil

That’s a great question. I’m so lucky because I’ve had incredible experiences. As you can see, Like I went to, uh, Modena in the Venice episode and and I met arguably the world’s greatest chef, Massimo Bottura. And one of my favorite things I’ve ever done is he and his crew came for some charity event here in Los Angeles and they had a night off and I got to have dinner with them. And they wanted me to pick the place. And I took Massimo Bottura to a Korean hot dog place on Western Avenue. And what you do is you order these hot dogs and there wild. They’ve got kimchi on them and they’re coated in cheese, some of them and they’ve got bacon wrapped, you know, it’s like a whole mishmash of every… all Los Angeles culture in all these hot dogs. And we got all of them to share with the his staff from Osteria Francescana, the best restaurant in the world. And then you go to this dive bar where the bartender has a big dog next to him behind the bar. And it’s just that you know, the most down to earth bar bordering on dirty, as as you could get. And he loved it. He loved it. And I loved it because he loved it. And it was just one of the great experiences. So I’ve had this wonderful, you know, life afforded to me, now, uh, So there really isn’t I can’t think of an experience that I must have because I’ve had so many. And I’m so grateful for what I’ve had. Whatever comes comes. Are there people that I love and wanna have dinner with you, I guess. I mean, I’m a big Springsteen fan, but I almost feel like if I had dinner with Bruce Springsteen, it would almost be too real. It would almost be like It’s not gonna be what I wanted to be, which is now. We’re best friends. He has a lot of dinners with a lot of people. He’s Bruce Springsteen. So as great as it would be, it wouldn’t be as great, even as I wanted to be, almost want my hero to stay my absolute hero. That makes sense?

Carole

It does, I think, definitely, when you have someone in your mind as your hero, your idol, Then when you actually meet them, it brings them down to a level that maybe doesn’t make them an idol anymore. But there is some humanity to it. So there may be good in that too,

Phil

Right?

Scott

You know what? This is Scott here, and I got to disagree with both you guys. When I was 18 I lived in Toronto, Canada, Mork and Mindy was the number one TV show. Robin Williams is my hero.  

Phil

Yeah.

Scott

I convinced my friends one summer to come to Los Angeles, and I actually met Robin Williams. And it was everything that I thought it to be, So I I didn’t have dinner with him. Obviously, it was just a few moments of his time in the parking lot, but I it really inspired me for many years to come.

Phil

Uh, he was a marvelous guy, and I have had dinner with him, and I can tell you that it’s wonderful, and I have met my heroes and I love meeting my heroes, but there are some that I don’t know, like someone like Bruce Springsteen is someone who I have met, and it’s been wonderful. I’ve met him actually a few times now, But to sit and just have dinner, that’s a special intimate thing, right?   

Scott

Right.  

Phil

And you’re not getting Bruce Springsteen with the guitar. Who’s making the entire stadium rock? You know, for four hours you’re getting a guy who might be tired and he might be… It’s almost like I don’t I don’t need to see that guy. Does that make sense?

Scott

Yeah, absolutely. I know what you mean now, like now they have pointed out that that makes a lot of sense.

Phil

But I can honestly say that 99% of the time that I’ve met my heroes. It’s been beyond what I expected because they’ve been so nice and so wonderful. And I have become friends with certain people like Norman Lear and Carl Reiner. They’re like family now. I’ve known them for now, 20 years. They’re inspiring and wonderful. And I’m never going to say, Don’t meet your heroes. I say, Meet your heroes every chance you can get. Ah, it’s just this dinner question. Who do I wanna have dinner with? I’m very happy having dinner with my friends and my family. I love that. I love being with my, you know, like the Raymond writers when it when we go out, you know, once or twice a year. Still, after 25 years, we still get together. And, ah, that’s one of the joys of my life. To have those kind of old Army buddies, right?

Scott

Yeah, you’re in the trenches with for all that time.  

Phil

That’s right.  

Scott

What do you think you’re unique skill is that has helped you become successful.

Phil

I’m going to say it’s the most underrated trait in human beings, and that is a sense of humor. That’s it, that is, that’s That’s everything to me. I think it. The sense of humor is so important. It’s what makes life livable. It’s what attracts us to other human beings, a similar sense of humor or in appreciation for that person’s sense of humor, even if it’s not the same sense of humor. I think it’s who we choose to be friends with is based on that, and I even will go this far. It’s who we marry. If you don’t have an appreciation for your spouse’s sense of humor, you’re in trouble.

Carole

( Laughing ) We’re looking at each other and laughing because… go ahead. You can say…  

Scott

I have to explain a lot of my jokes to Carole.

Phil

( Laughing ) But she still appreciates your sense of humor. You wouldn’t be together if you didn’t.

Scott

Correct ( Laughing )

Phil

And you appreciate hers.

Scott

Yeah, I do. I do. Um, sometimes I she goes. That’s funny. Why aren’t you laughing at that?

Phil

That’s great.

Carole

That’s what I’m trying to tell him a joke, and he won’t laugh at it. I’m like, no, I if I cause I’m typically a much more serious person than Scott. Scott is a comedian, and I’ll tell a joke, which I think is really funny, And then he’ll just go, okay. And my heart sinks.

Phil

He loves the other jokes. Hehe. He loves that you’re funny without maybe knowing that you’re funny…

Carole

Right. 

Phil

Right. How long have you been married?

Carole

WeII. Always get this mix up. Um, 2000

Scott

Like maybe 8 or 9 years?

Phil

Oh, you’re newlyweds. You know what’s happening to me next week? 30 years of marriage.  

Carole

Wow. Congratulations.  

Phil

You know what that  anniversaries is called – The Enough Already!

Carole

What is a question that I should have asked you, but I didn’t.

Phil

What am I having for lunch?

Carole

What are you having for lunch?

Phil

I’m gonna have a tuna fish sandwich with tomato on nice bread, and I’m gonna be a as happy with that sandwich as I am with a four star French meal. Because the tuna is so good. This can tuna that I found that I love so much and it just makes it. That’s it.

Carole

So you have to give me the tip because Scott loves tuna. What is the canned tuna that you love so much?

Phil

I’m only gonna say this, uh, for broadcast because I want them to send me a case of this tuna. It’s called Ortiz, I believe it’s from Spain. And you know what Ventresca means?

Carole

No, what does that mean? 

Phil

It means the belly. So you’re just getting like these, these beautiful fillets almost of the tuna. It’s not like mushed up tuna fish. This is tuna packed in oil, and it’s so good that you just have to take it out of the can. Put it on your bread, maybe a little salt and whatever. If you like dill or herbs for the Provence on it, whatever you like flavoring on it. But it doesn’t need anything but a little salt slice a tomato, maybe a piece of lettuce on this bread. I’m telling you, one of the world’s great sandwiches and even a monkey like me can make this sandwich and not ruin it. That sounds delicious. You saw the can fish in the Lisbon episode, right?

Carole

We did. We did.

Phil

Tuna was part of that, too. And, you know, people think there’s a lot of people don’t like fish anyone, right? But then they think canned fish. How good can that be? Very, very good. Is the answer very, very good. It just has to be the right one.

Scott

Well, Phil, we’re just basically coming to the end of the podcast here. And we just wanted to say it was such a joy to interview you. It was very much like how when I met Robin Williams, there was an excitement to it, and you delivered in every capacity. Is their places or things or websites or instagram accounts that you want to give a shout out. We can put them in the show notes. But is there something specifically you want people to know about?

Phil

Uh, let’s see, there’s philrosenthalworld.com

Twitter: @PhilRosenthal

Facebook: @philrosenthalofficial

Instagram: @Phil.rosenthal

Youtube: PhilRosenthalWorld

Lake Street Dive – Band mentioned by Phil – https://lakestreetdive.com/   

Phil

So you’ll see on that. That’s we think that special because their bonus scenes from the show on the YouTube channel.

Carole

I was wondering about that. Yeah, I was wondering how you got those extra cuts. That’s I’ve been watching that also.

Phil

They were sharp for the show, and we didn’t have time in the show to put them in. But they’re perfectly good and perfectly funny and perfectly, ah, informative.

Carole

They are definitely and they have. Ah, they’re not as slickly produced, but that gives them a real character. And they’re nice because it’s more personal.

Phil

That’s right.

Carole

So I just wanted to tell you my daughter Dara, put together a cookie and muffin delivery. She’s delivering oatmeal toffee cookies, spelt chocolate chip and orange cranberry shortbread and also some really delicious roasted banana bread muffins. And so we would love to drop off a box of all of this for Thank you.  

Phil

Wow!  

Carole

Yeah, so we can talk off line about that and how we could get that to you.

Phil

I’m excited. This was the best podcast ever!

Carole

Oh, thank you so much. That’s awesome. We really appreciated talking to you.

Phil

Me, too.

Scott

Thanks, Phil. And here’s our new segment. Seven reasons why you should eat chocolate.

Carole

You know, there are a lot of reasons you should eat chocolate, but really, when doctors talk about this, it’s specifically dark chocolate. No need to feel guilty about having that piece of dark chocolate every day.

Scott

Because it’s loaded with nutrients. Rich in antioxidants can reduce inflammation, potentially lower blood pressure and many other reasons. Just make sure you’re having a 70 to 85% cocoa bar. Just a disclaimer. We’re not doctors, but check with your doctor as to whether chocolate can fit into your diet.

Carole

Reason. Number one. Chocolate Wins over Blueberries. A lot of food is tested for anti oxidants. People always talk about blueberries scoring really high in anti oxidants, but did you know cocoa beans score even higher!

Scott

Reason number two. Keep your lipids in line.  

Carole

Your lips.

Scott

No Carole. Your lipids.  

Carole

( Carole makes kissing sounds. )

Scott

If you eat dark chocolate. It can really help with risk factors for heart disease. There have been studies where cocoa powder was found to really decrease bad cholesterol in men.

Carole

Reason. Number three. Chocolate is a totally epic superfood. Our bodies need a lot of different minerals. In chocolate, there’s copper, iron, magnesium, selenium, manganese, potassium, phosphorus and zinc chocolate will make you a superhero.

Scott

Reason Number four Chocolate helps your sex life.  

Carole

Whoohoo

Scott

Grrr Grrr Enough said!

Carole

Reason number five. Chocolate helps you live longer. There was a study of 470 elderly men where it showed that cocoa reduced the risk of death from heart disease by a crazy 50% over a 15 year period.

Scott

Reason Number six Chocolate makes you smarter. One study showed that eating coco for five days improves the blood flow to your brain. Also, Coco has caffeine in it, which can help you wake up. Now. If you combine coffee and cocoa, you will be woke.

Carole

Reason Number seven Chocolate can be used as an SPF at the beach. Studies show that the flavanols from Cocoa can improve blood flow to the skin and protect it from sun damage.  

Scott

So what’s the bottom line? Chocolate can turn you into a superhuman, but you have to remember some special things.

Carole

First, you only need a square or two. You don’t need all the calories. And remember to eat high quality chocolate with 70% or higher cocoa content.

Scott

Dark chocolates have smaller amounts of sugar, plus you get to eat something totally tasty that has proven health benefits. And that’s why you should eat chocolate. Thank you to Phil of Somebody Feed Phil again for your time and infectious positivity. We were so honored and appreciative that you gave us the gift of your presence and your insight.

Carole

I will always refer back to this episode whenever I need a moment of inspiration and centering to keep my spirits up. Thank you so much for that. We mentioned that we were dropping off some cookies to Phil after he received them. He forwarded a photo of himself with the cookies and told us The Cookies are phenomenal. We’re so glad we could bring a little love to Phil in his family because we definitely felt that love when we spoke with him.  

Scott

We’d love to hear your feedback on our podcast. Call us on The This Is Yu Hotline at 562-291-6037 and leave a message. We’re always looking to improve and would love any constructive criticism. And, of course, all the constructive compliments that you want to give too let us know what you’d like to hear us talk about or any suggestions of guests, too.

Carole

We all want to belong to a community and connect. And we want to offer up our ears and our hearts to you.

Scott

Our home base is www.ThisIsYu.com

Carole

Instagram is @ThisIsYuOfficial. And last but not least, our Facebook is… This Is Yu VIP Community. That’s it for today. Good bye. Bye bye.  

Scott

Thanks for listening, guys.

Carole

Thank you.

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