Final Four Picks & Ryan Gosling on Project Hail Mary, Diva Puppets & Being a Liability at DB | Ep 183

Mar 18, 2026

Ryan Gosling, actor and producer known for La La Land, Blade Runner and Project Hail Mary, stops by to discuss adapting the book, keeping humor and hard science in balance, and the craft of using a real puppet for Rocky. He talks believable alien design, reveals he's making an original-timeline Star Wars film, and shares wild Harrison Ford on-set stories.

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ADVICE

Keep Authors Close When Adapting Books

Stay faithful to strong source material when adapting a beloved book to film.
Gosling involved Andy Weir on set and minimized changes to preserve the book's tested characters and story.

INSIGHT

Weir Balances Rigour With Human Optimism

Andy Weir's writing balances rigorous science with human optimism, making complex ideas accessible.
Gosling says this approach avoids bleak apocalyptic defaults and highlights human problem-solving across history.

INSIGHT

Humor Keeps Dense Science Watchable

Andy Weir embeds humor into dense scientific material to sustain audience engagement.
Gosling credits the directors and the cast for amplifying that humor while keeping scientific accuracy intact.

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First, Jason and Travis share their thoughts on the Oscars, Jason’s “bullshit” during a golf competition, and we fill out our March Madness Brackets. It goes great having watched very little college basketball this season!

And Ryan Gosling joins the show! We tell him how much we enjoyed Project Hail Mary, get his POV on working with a puppet with an entourage, his thoughts on aliens, why he’s never going to space, and what he’s doing next in a galaxy far, far away. He also shares some incredible Harrison Ford stories, discovers he’s the face of Taco Bell inflation, and so much more!

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