Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin – Details, episodes & analysis

Michael Cohl is an internationally acclaimed Emmy and Tony Award-winning live entertainment producer and concert promoter. In his 55-year career, Cohl’s expertise spans a broad range of live experiences, from music to sports, theatre, and film. He is the Chairman of EMC Presents and founder and CEO of S2BN Entertainment, which brings highly immersive and interactive live entertainment to global audiences, including music and film experiences, as well as the Harry Potter exhibition and Pink Floyd exhibition.  Cohl has notably overseen the tours and related merchandising for over 150 world-renowned artists, including David Gilmour, Barbra Streisand, Phil Collins, Genesis, and The Rolling Stones. One of the most prolific figures in his industry, Cohl has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and he is the subject of CBC’s 2006 documentary, Satisfaction: The Life and Times of Michael Cohl. He is the recipient of the NAACP Image Award, GLAAD Award, Peabody Award, and Billboard’s Legend of Live Award. Currently, Cohl continues to shape the entertainment landscape with projects including A Night with Janis Joplin, Bat Out of Hell: The Musical, David Gilmour’s Concert Tour, Asi Wind: Incredibly Human, and The Big Apple Circus. ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: LMNT Electrolytes https://drinklmnt.com/tetra ------ Squarespace https://squarespace.com/tetra ------ Lucy https://lucy.co/tetra ------ House of Macadamias https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/tetra

Woody Harrelson is a notorious television and film actor. After a brief stint in New York Theater at the start of his career, he made his on-screen debut on NBC’s “Cheers,” regarded as one of the best TV shows of all time. He has gained acclaim for his roles in movies like The People Vs. Larry Flynt, No Country for Old Men, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbings, Missouri. With over 60 movies in his portfolio, Harrelson acts across a range of genres, including comedy, drama, and thriller. Over the course of his career, he has been nominated for three Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards, and he has been the recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award.  ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: Squarespace https://squarespace.com/tetra ------ Lucy https://lucy.co/tetra ------ LMNT Electrolytes https://drinklmnt.com/tetra ------ House of Macadamias https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/tetra

This interview with John Sinclair was recorded a few months before he passed away on April 4, 2024.  John was an icon of the counterculture movement. In the late 1960s, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for marijuana possession, sparking protests and rallies like the John Sinclair Freedom Rally, which featured performances by John Lennon and Stevie Wonder, among others. After a high-profile legal battle that challenged and ultimately reformed harsh marijuana laws, Sinclair was released after two years in prison. Before and after his protested prison sentence, John was a renowned poet, writer, and political activist. He founded the White Panther Party in support of the Black Panthers, produced music festivals, managed the influential rock band MC5, and published and recorded prolifically, including John Sinclair: The Collected Poems and the music-in-verse collection Thelonious: a Book of Monk. ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: Squarespace https://squarespace.com/tetra ------ Lucy https://lucy.co/tetra ------ LMNT Electrolytes https://drinklmnt.com/tetra ------ House of Macadamias https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/tetra

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is a professor of medicine, economics, and health research policy at Stanford University, where he is also the director of Stanford's Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. After dedicating much of his career to studying the economics of health care, when the COVID-19 crisis began, Dr. Bhattacharya shifted his research focus to the epidemiology of COVID-19, the lethality of COVID-19 infection, and the effectiveness and effects of lockdown policies. This led him to co-author an open letter, The Great Barrington Declaration, which advocated for a lift of restrictions on lower-risk groups to develop herd immunity. He is also the co-author of the widely acclaimed textbook Health Economics, a staple in undergraduate and graduate curricula worldwide. He holds four degrees from Stanford: a BA, an AM, an MD, and a PhD in economics. ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: Lucy https://lucy.co/tetra ------ LMNT Electrolytes https://drinklmnt.com/tetra ------ Squarespace https://squarespace.com/tetra ------ House of Macadamias https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/tetra

Julie Greenwald is a prominent music industry executive. She got her start at Def Jam Recordings in 1992, became president of Atlantic Records in 2004, and was elevated to chairperson and CEO of the Atlantic Music Group in 2022. Throughout her career, she has played a crucial role in the success of artists like Coldplay, Cardi B, Coldplay, Lizzo, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Jack Harlow, Wiz Khalifa, Twenty One Pilots, and countless others. Her leadership has helped establish Atlantic as one of the most consistently successful labels in the business. Greenwald has received multiple accolades, including being named Billboard's Women in Music Executive of the Year a record five times and appearing on various lists of powerful and influential people in entertainment and business. ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: LMNT Electrolytes https://drinklmnt.com/tetra ------ Squarespace https://squarespace.com/tetra ------ Lucy https://lucy.co/tetra ------ House of Macadamias https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/tetra

Michael Richards is a multiple Emmy and SAG Award-winning actor best known for playing the iconic character Cosmo Kramer on the classic sitcom Seinfeld. After cutting his teeth on the Los Angeles comedy circuit alongside legends like Robin Williams, Sam Kinison, and Andy Kaufman, Richards landed minor film and TV roles throughout the 1980s, including the cultish late-night sketch comedy show Fridays and Weird Al Yankovic’s oddball comedy UHF, before exploding into pop cultural consciousness as Seinfeld’s Kramer. Richards’ latest project, his newly published book Entrances and Exits, provides an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at the highs and lows of his career, from his unconventional upbringing by his schizophrenic grandmother and single mother to his training as a theater actor and honing comedic instincts on stage, his time in the army during Vietnam, and his big break. With candor and humor, Richards chronicles how his private life and curiosity shaped his comedic talents, culminating in his Kramer fame before a health scare intensified a spiritual quest informing and inspiring his insightful memoir. ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: Squarespace https://squarespace.com/tetra ------ Lucy https://lucy.co/tetra ------ LMNT Electrolytes https://drinklmnt.com/tetra ------ House of Macadamias https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/tetra

Robert Downey Jr. is an actor and producer whose critically acclaimed performance as Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer earned him an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA Award. His newest project, The Sympathizer, an HBO miniseries based on the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, has Downey Jr. taking on multiple roles simultaneously. Born into a family of filmmakers, Downey Jr. began acting as a child actor in his father's independent films, then entered mainstream Hollywood in the 1980s. His portrayal of the legendary Charlie Chaplin in the 1992 biopic Chaplin earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. After a period of personal struggles with substance abuse, Downey conquered his addiction, dedicated himself to sobriety, and made a remarkable professional resurgence. His starring roles as Tony Stark/Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in the action-adventure Sherlock Holmes, and in the action comedy Tropic Thunder catapulted him to global stardom. To date, Downey has appeared in over 70 movies, which have grossed over $14 billion, making Downey one of the highest-grossing actors of all time.  ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: Lucy https://lucy.co/tetra ------ LMNT Electrolytes https://drinklmnt.com/tetra ------ Squarespace https://squarespace.com/tetra ------ House of Macadamias https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/tetra

Tom O'Neill is an award-winning investigative journalist and entertainment reporter. His book, Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties, is the culmination of a 20-year investigation, which unearthed information about the murders, the murderers, the prosecutors who tried them, and the complex web of connections between Charles Manson, the CIA's MKUltra program, the counterculture movement, and other powerful individuals during the 1960s. His investigative stories, such as the cut-throat battles among daytime talk-show producers (“Welcome to the Jungle”), the stalking and murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer (“Dangerous Minds”), and the unsolved slaying of a Hollywood starlet (“The Life and Death of Miss Hollywood”) have appeared in national publications like Us, Premiere, New York, The Village Voice, and Details. His exposé on sexism at Saturday Night Live (“The Incredible Shrinking Women of Saturday Night Live”) earned him an Exceptional Merit Media Award from the National Women's Political Caucus and Radcliffe College in 1995. ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: LMNT Electrolytes https://drinklmnt.com/tetra ------ Squarespace https://squarespace.com/tetra ------ Lucy https://lucy.co/tetra ------ House of Macadamias https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/tetra

Serj Tankian is a Grammy-award-winning artist best known for being the frontman of System Of A Down. His powerful vocals and thought-provoking lyrics helped the group achieve wild success, including over 40 million records sold worldwide, multiple platinum albums, more than a billion YouTube plays, and multiple Grammy nominations (winning Best Hard Rock Performance in 2006 for "B.Y.O.B."). Beyond System Of A Down, Tankian has released five solo albums (Elect the Dead, Imperfect Harmonies, Harakiri, Orca, Jazz-Iz-Christ, and Elasticity), composed music for film and television (Body of Lies, Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields, among many more), and been a prominent activist for human rights, environmental issues, and causes related to his Armenian heritage (In 2011, he was awarded the Armenian Prime Minister's Medal for his significant contributions to the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide). His book Down with the System: A Memoir (of Sorts)—which shares his extraordinary life story, from his childhood in war-torn Beirut and his family’s move to Los Angeles, to his decision to pursue music and his rise to fame as the lead singer of System—is out now!   ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: Squarespace https://squarespace.com/tetra ------ Lucy https://lucy.co/tetra ------ LMNT Electrolytes https://drinklmnt.com/tetra ------ House of Macadamias https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/tetra

Chris Pine is a multifaceted actor with a Zen-like presence on screen. He’s perhaps best known for his charismatic portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek reboot film series and Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman. He began his career with small roles in TV shows like ER and CSI: Miami before making his feature film debut in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. He made his directorial debut with the 2023 movie Poolman, which he also co-wrote and starred in. Along with director Joss Whedon, he created the viral video "If Congress Was Your Co-Worker," a satirical video that encourages viewers to exercise their right to vote.  ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: Lucy https://lucy.co/tetra ------ Squarespace https://squarespace.com/tetra ------ LMNT Electrolytes https://drinklmnt.com/tetra ------ House of Macadamias https://www.houseofmacadamias.com/tetra