Two Percent with Michael Easter
Brian Koppelman: How a Hollywood Writer Got Fit at 60, Beat Anxiety & Outworked Resistance
21 May 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey guys, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions.
Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but you know. Tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.
Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy. Not quite. On Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guests, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.
Those people are starving for banter. Listen to Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The story I told myself can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection.
This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast Deeply Well with Debbie Brown. If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you. To hear more, listen to Deeply Well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is Saigon, the story of my family and of the country that shaped us. From iHeart Podcasts, Saigon. You don't think I'm serious about a free Vietnam? One city, a divided country, and the war that tore America apart. This is for Vietnam. They're pouring petrol all over here. Freedom for Vietnam! There's a fire coming to this country and it's going to burn out everything.
Listen to Saigon on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to 2%, I'm your host, Michael Easter. Now, let me say something.
It is one thing to get fit and healthy when you're in your 20s, you have a low stress job, you have no kids, but it is a completely other thing when you are in your 50s, you have kids, and you have one of the most high profile and demanding jobs in the world. But it turns out today's guest was able to do just that. I'm going to be talking to Brian Koppelman.
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Chapter 2: What sparked Brian Koppelman's health transformation at 60?
They're a promotion. People have to go to radio stations. And she's demographically. And I was like, I don't even know what that word means. I mean, I did. But I was like, what? did you not just hear those songs? And then every step of the way, I saw these experts be wrong and enormously wrong, right? Wrong in a way that 35 years later or more, you know, she has another number one record again.
She still has millions and millions and millions and millions of listens a year. But it's her, you know, this is the thing, that story often, when someone's talking to me, but becomes a story about, about me. The story is about Tracy, you know, and it was always about Tracy for me. It was that I was lucky enough to be in a position to see her.
And I was lucky enough to have both enough experience and more importantly, enough innocence that I jumped in fully and made it like my life's work at that time.
Yeah.
I got to talk to her after the Luke Combs Grammy thing. She and I spoke for a half hour and it was really beautiful because we got to revisit those early days and just talk about how miraculous and heartwarming it is that the music still has this level of impact on people.
Yeah. So when you're at TOS, you're also playing poker, right?
I played poker. I've always played. Yeah, I've played poker since I was eight years old.
The tone on that, I played poker. That tells us you played some poker. But weren't you playing, you would play against Harvard kids, right?
Well, yeah, it's funny. I just had dinner with a guy who was, when I was at Harvard then, and I was talking about going to, yeah, you know, Harvard, like in that social network, you know, they have those things like final clubs. And I would go, I knew some kids who were there. And I would go to like one of these final clubs and play poker.
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Chapter 3: How did Brian Koppelman overcome resistance in his fitness journey?
And, um, my gramps had one.
So I love that. And I like, I think I came that summer. I, I learned how to play and then I decided I wanted to try to get decent at it. Um, I had a little too much gamble in me. Even when I would play at Tufts against some of those guys, they would win. But I, I, I always found that game, um,
Chapter 4: What lessons did Brian learn about creativity and writer's block?
the combination of things, right? You have to, you have to be able to exhibit discipline, you know, self-discipline, and then you have to try to know, I think like something that's incredibly valuable in life is to know where you are in the hand, meaning like, where are you situationally, right? Um, It's situational awareness, but it's more than that.
It's like being aware of the terrain, but also being aware of if you have the proper footwear for that terrain. And so for me, learning how to watch everybody else, because we all walk around listening to our own voice all the time, but at poker, you have to be outwardly directed enough to sort of try to understand the patterns, right? People think... It's like reading tells is just one thing.
Like, you know, oh, does somebody always touch their nose before? But it's betting patterns. It's rhythms of speech. It's posture. It's first making a determination. Does this person have an awareness? I'm watching them closely. And if they do, are they intentionally trying to use that against me? If they're not, then they're going to have...
exhibit their natural tension is going to come out in some way. Okay, how's that going to come out? Also, if they are trying to influence me, that means something. So instead of being self-absorbed, you are forced to be aware of
Chapter 5: How does Brian Koppelman view the relationship between fitness and creativity?
these externalities, and then you have to filter them through your prism and you have to be disciplined. It's really hard to stay disciplined when you've gotten unlucky. And so for a long, you know, I don't play poker as much anymore. I got a lot of the benefit out of it that I'm going to get out of it. And you can't play poker on a Monday and get to the gym at 5 a.m. on a Tuesday, I don't think.
And so I've modulated it, but I still play sometimes. And for a long time, I played once a week with a bunch of friends.
Yeah. So you end up writing Rounders. When did you start working on that? That came out in 97?
Yeah. David and I, I walked into a poker club in New York, December 15th, 1995, 96. Dave and I started writing it in 97. We sold it March 3rd, 1997. And we went into production December 15th. And I know because exactly two years to the day of walking into a poker club. But I'll just say, because I like the theme. Rounders was also rejected by everybody.
Yeah, what did you learn from that?
Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, Nick? Huge news. We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Yeah, a pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special.
So how did we actually come up with the name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it, and... Well, we were thinking of originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this.
We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast where people could call in and say, Hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey, Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. Oh, wow. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen.
We don't care where you hear it.
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Chapter 6: How did Brian Koppelman integrate meditation into his routine?
I see there's some benefits to the Turkish getup. It might be good to add something else in too. Yeah. Like, you know, also if you're putting something heavy in your hand and you're trying to stand up, anyway, there's benefit. But if you're looking to, you know, build bolder shoulders, there might be something better.
But it seems like in that space, everybody should always just say, look, if you're doing something hard, it's physically hard and taxing and you're trying to improve it. It's a net good. Now within that,
Chapter 7: What role did anxiety play in Brian's life and work?
we can iterate a little bit and make it slightly more effective. But I guess that doesn't sell enough books, right?
Well, there's also the question of, I try and look at who is making the point for and against, right? If I talk to a Russian kettlebell trainer, they're going to say the Turkish get up with the kettlebell is the greatest thing ever. But then you're going to have some guy screaming, no, it's completely useless. And you look at their background and they're a run coach or something.
So it goes, okay, well, if I'm a runner, maybe I should listen to this guy. But if I'm interested in kettlebell work, getting stronger, I should probably listen to this Russian kettlebell guy who's putting a kettlebell the size of a Volvo over their head.
I just did a really deep dive, and we don't have to get lost in this, but I know this is something you know about, but I did a really deep dive on how in 1947 the partition happened in India and Pakistan and about the three-way tribal wars that happened there.
and honestly it gives you an insight into why over something like kettlebells because i've noticed these wars online about this people just running other people down cursing them out like screaming online and uh it's like it seems very important i'm curious how you because it in in what you write about it is controversial right
It seems like people in the fitness and wellness space spend a lot of time trying to tell other people why they're wrong instead of trying to just find the best answer for themselves and sharing it with a positive spin. I mean, have you thought about that at all?
I'll tell you what I do on my sub stack is a lot of times I just say, do more of what helps you and less of what hurts you. You can't argue with that. If you do the exercise why and it helps you, great, do it more. If you feel like it's not as beneficial, do it less. It can be that simple because people are going to be different, right?
There are people who respond differently to different movements based on their anatomy, based on their training background, based on all these different things. But your comment about... India, Pakistan, it reminds me. One of my best friends is named Matt Sherman, awesome guy, longest serving American in the Iraq and Afghanistan war.
And what happened with the war is, especially with administrations changing, people coming in and out, the average person is staying over there for six months, a year, something like that. And he's like, people would have very strong opinions what we have to do here. But he told me the longer I stayed there, the more I realized I have no clue what's going on.
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Chapter 8: What insights does Brian share about the importance of community?
I would have said, oh, my back is hurt, and I would have stayed in bed. And I would have taken, I would ask the doctor for cortisone, you know, and now I'm in a different mode. And I think it's the, so, but the thing Sarno says that's really important is the pain is real. Like the pain is legitimate and real. So the pain you feel when you're a blocked writer, a blocked artist is a very real pain.
And it does seem as bleak as depression. But I do think, that there is a strategy for you if you're listening to this. And it might not be the strategy that works for Michael Easter or for me or for Seth Godin, but there is a strategy that will work for you and you can find it and get to the other side. What do you think?
I think you're totally right there. I think for, and I'll give you my own experience, I've treated the feelings of feeling blocked, whatever you want to call it, as a signal.
So for me as a writer of nonfiction that usually has narrative across it, if I'm really struggling and I've put my butt in the chair, I'm there, I'm doing that work, it tells me I need to get out in the world and probably do more reporting. I just don't have enough material. I'm trying to build a McMansion with, you know, 27 sticks. We're going to need more wood here, dude.
So, to me, it's like, all right, do more research. Maybe you got to go to that place you're writing about to try and find some characters and things like that. So, long story short, as I treat it as a signal that something's missing that I need to go out and find.
Well, in fiction, you know... writing TV or movies or stories. Maybe it has to do with point of view. And that same information too, it might be instead of having to go outside, maybe it's having to go inside and do more work on like, what is it that I want to say here? Why do I want to tell this story?
But also sometimes, look, I think I might believe a little more than you that some of this stuff is chemical because I am somebody who believes in medical interventions for ADHD. I think there are lots of other interventions, right? Sleep is super important. Exercise is super important. Meditation is really important. Journaling is really important.
If you're doing all those things and you're putting yourself in the seat and you still can't do the work, talk to a doctor. Maybe for you, Adderall works. Maybe for you, Concerta works. Maybe for you. I don't know. I am absolutely not an expert on what works for somebody else. But I know for a lot of years, I felt anger and guilt around something like Adderall. I wouldn't take it.
But if I do take it, There's a real chance that I'm better to be around and the work is better and I can do it more consistently. And I've learned not to feel, you have to make sure you're not someone who has an addictive personality. Like I'll say, I've never taken a higher dose. I have doctors telling me to take more all the time. Like, no, renew this prescription. everybody's different.
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