Wouldn't it be great to go to twice as many concerts? Well, here's music to your ears. Discover automatically doubles the cashback earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with cashback match, meaning you could put that toward double the reunion tours. Imagine getting to see your favorite band when they get back together, break up again, and get back together a third time. It pays to discover, and sometimes it pays double. See terms at Discover.com slash credit card.
The Pink House is sponsored by HopeLab. Most conversations and headlines about social media and youth mental health focus solely on the harms, portraying young people as passive consumers. That's why HopeLab recently released a report detailing how young people use social media and how it impacts their well-being, both the benefits and the risks. If we truly want to improve the well-being of young people, we need to listen to their experiences and ensure that we don't
inadvertently remove access to crucial positive benefits. This is especially important for Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ plus young people whose experiences are often overlooked. Be part of this important conversation. Go to HopeLab.org to learn more and download the report. That's HopeLab.org. When I was 10, there was one place in particular where I could truly escape and be the silliest
version of myself. That was my local theatre. I made so many wonderful friends. I remember being a kid in the kitchen backstage putting loads of sugar in my tea and eating loads of cookies because I wasn't allowed sweet treats at home. So I would run around backstage with all these adult stressors, mad characters, and I'd be there with my best friends. It was such an amazing time of play and fun and drama. Drama, drama, drama. And a couple of years ago, I'd really started to miss
that feeling I had backstage with the theatre kids. That feeling of being sweaty and seeing all these mad costumes and going home covered in glitter and all these things. And that's why my last tour, my glory at all, I tried to bring some of that back with the costumes and the colours and the fun and the dancing and it felt so good, so good to get a taste of that chaos back in my life. Welcome to the Pincouse. A podcast about the people and places that make us who we are.
It's inspired by my own childhood home which was quite literally a Pincouse. Set back in the woodlands of a small English village. It was a space of total warmth and love where I was safe to find my voice. It's the place I still think of when I hear the word home. And speaking of home, today's episode is about finding your ensemble, that tight knit circle of collaborators who allow you to be free. This episode is about the theatre. Our guest today has been in the limelight
captivating audiences for as long as he can remember. He's a talented actor, writer and singer and his dedication to the craft landed in Motonefist performance in Dear Evan Hanson when he was just 23 years old. When you watch Ben Platt perform, you can't help but be pulled into the worlds he's creating. And his latest feat is the hilarious and relatable movie theatre camp which he wrote, produced and acted in. And on top of all of that, he just wrapped up a singing residency at the
palace in New York for his latest album Honeymind. I'm so honored and excited to welcome to the Pincouse Ben Platt. That's so nice. Welcome. Well, lovely intro. Every time I entered a room with someone just started with that paragraph. How are you doing today? I'm doing well today. It was nice and sunny first parts of the day so that always affects me a lot. Tell anyone's listening to this, me and Ben
actually know each other. Yeah, thank God. Also, this is coming out after the fact but we are performing together. It's because people would have known this. Oh my gosh. Ben's asked me to come on stage at the palace and perform. Is it going to be your Broadway debut? It's my Broadway debut. Oh my gosh. If I'm honest, I'm shitting myself. Oh, it's going to be great. I'm shitting myself. It's going to be wonderful. Yeah, it'll be fun. Everyone's going to freak out. The video is already going to be
viral at this point when manifesting. I'll be in safe hands. It'll be so beautiful to share that moment with you. Oh my God. I'm honored that you're going to do it. Thank you for having me. My God, of course. So Ben, I want to take you back back to your childhood. That's okay. Yeah, you can. And I want to talk about you as a kid. Where did your insane talent come from? And your love of the theatre, obviously, you grew up in a household where theatre was in your life.
Yes. What was it like for you as a kid? Well, my parents met in college doing theatre through musical theatre. So it was definitely like in my veins. And I'm one of five and all my siblings before me. Three of them are older. And they all went to the same musical theatre youth program that I started doing when I showed up. It was very much the currency of the family and the thing that we bonded over. And most of where we found our friends and our community was in theatre.
And in youth theatre and school theatre. It just like my parents both grew up loving it. And my mom, interestingly, when I was a young kid, I thought that my father was the primary singer because he was much more vocal about the fact that he was in cabaret in high school. And he was in Fiddhar on the roof. And he would still sing now and again. But and my mom always had a lovely voice, very light voice, but didn't necessarily express to me to what extent she really was a singer
when she was younger. And then when I was like 12 or 13, I got to see a video or not a video, an audio recording of her singing in college, which I'd never heard before. And she had like an unbelievable voice, like gorgeous, like Karen Carpenter, like beautiful, like could have really been a singer if she wanted. So like I just like switched my whole view. I was like, it's all from my mom. I mean, my dad is a producer and he's in the theatre. And so I get a lot of the love
for it and like the creativity and the mindset from him. But I think in terms of literal singing talent and and you know, the voice is it's it's my mom for sure. When you were younger and you started to love theatre, was there a specific character that came into your life that you were like, that's the character I want to play that's who I want to be? Well, when I became a teenager, there's this show called Sunday in the Park with George that's a Steven Sonntime musical that
is my favorite show and my dream is to do it someday. And Mandy Patinkin was the original guy who started it. And it's about this painter named George Serrat, who was a real man, but it's like a fictionalized imagining of his life and his descendants lives. And he's a painter. He's like a pointless painter. So he's his work is like incredibly painstaking. And it takes him like months and
months to to make one little patch of color. So the whole show is about like what a gift it is to be an artist because you get to experience like such satisfaction and you get to live in your work. But also how sad it is because you sometimes you miss things because you're living in your head and in your passion and sometimes you have to sacrifice some of your relationships and you're well-being to love what you do. And I think when I was young and I saw that, I felt
like a real connection to that. Because you were worth a lot of kids. I should. Yeah, I started working. I was nine. Oh my gosh. Did you have the gun running? Did you have the film like you being forced? Never, never. My parents were also really great about the balance. They never let me do anything on camera until I was done with high school. It was all about just theater and things like shows that I could fit in next like with school. So I never like left and became like a
full-time child actor. It was like what are the musicals I can do during the summer or during the day or you know things like that. So it was a nice balance and I still felt like I got to be like a young person. But I had that moment more delayed. Like when I was 23, 24 and I was finishing Jura and Hansen, I had been going really hard all the way from the end of high school to the end of that run and I sort of felt like I have to take a breath. When you were young, what did you
love about being on stage the most? I think that when I was a kid I felt like a little bit in my stuck in my own world, like in my own head and then when I was on stage I felt like it was the only place I could like externalize it and like let it all out and like share it with everybody and like it was a controlled chaos. Like it was a safe place to feel scared and excited because it was in the context of like a space where I know what's expected to me. I know what I'm supposed to do and I know
I can do it and I'm good at it. So I just like I think I felt very just like alive. I knew with your friends, right? Yes. Yeah. Most of my best friends to this day I made doing youth theater and high school theater. Nice. That's beautiful. Those are the best. I mean that's not better than that. No, it really does. And that's where I found my tribe as it were when I was
in Shanghai. When you open a show in high school and you get, I don't know how it worked for you, but we've got maybe like three performances max and it was like the most the highest stakes like most like the world is like happening on this night. It was like even whatever I haven't had since Tony, like whatever has happened since then like nothing has felt as earth shaking as when you do like your three performances of Pippin in high school. So true. I remember using
those times as a kid as a as a queer kid out in school. You know being bullied in school at times, it was those times on stage and the school shows was my time to kind of get my own back at the bullies because I think I was rather good. I'm sure you were. At the next day people people would be like you're fantastic. You know, gave me a little bit more courage to face my days. Good. You know, which I loved. I love it. I mean that's our power as queer people is that
we're generally more talented. I know it's just it's a beautiful thing. You spoken about anxiety. You've been really open about anxiety, which is wonderful. So thank you for that because I'm extremely anxious person myself. Did you all anxiety start in your childhood or did it start my older? Yeah, I definitely was born in my childhood because it's just sort of like
to a certain extent genetic. But I think like I think my anxiety started as like taking things on for other people that weren't mine to take on like anytime there was a like you know, it really a disagreement in my family or my friends weren't getting along where there was like any kind of discord or like emotional distress like anything that anyone around me is experiencing. I felt like my job was to like mediate and like like fix things and like I got like a little bit
too responsible a little too quickly I think. But as a kid with your anxiety the stage was it calmed you down. The music calmed you down. Yes, that was like the safe space and it also just like especially live performance like it suspends reality in a way that nothing else does where it's like there's no room to think about anything other than what's happening like in the moment. When you're on stage like there's no choice but to be only like totally present where you are in
this meditative. It's really yes totally. Yeah, it's beautiful. I am I still struggle to the stage. I don't know how you do actually when I've seen you on stage with the way that you calm yourself down. It's unbelievable. Do you have a moment when you failed on stage? That's broke. A lot of little ones of you know we've all had cracks and where you can't hear
yourself and you forget a lyric and all those little things. I think when I was doing Book of Mormon on Broadway I did the the act one finale is like this big like rock number and I at the beginning of it I do this big knee slide and my pants split from the like top of my crotch to the back of my butt and I was wearing like tidy whiteies and then this like chats essentially and I was 19 and I just remember being like fucking like I can do I have to just like finish
this number with my thighs out. Oh my god. And luckily it was like I know I was always thankful that it was in like a ridiculous show like Book of Mormon where it's like anything goes because it's just like an arch comedy. I can't imagine if it had been like in the middle of a Shakespeare piece or something. It sounds to me that you get into a mental state a bit easier than I do.
Is it is character work part of that? I'd love to know. Totally. Because it's with the character I feel like it's there's like a safety and like a nice remove because you're like you like practice and like everything's very technical and you sort of plan ahead in a in a larger way of like this is how this person walks and moves and sings and speaks and you can prepare in like a way
more literal sense I think. Whereas when you're going out as yourself sure there can be blocking or choreography whatever it is but like it's it's your call of how you want to present and what like how you want the energy to feel and what the song wants to feel like and
how you want to sing it and so that's really fun and like freeing but it's also like scary because it's it's all instinctual and it's like I I prefer to like know exactly what I'm going to go out there and do and by virtue of doing something that it's your own it's like you have to just give over to like a little bit of the more go with the flow like off the side the old quitside and so exactly and just like live in them. There's more from my conversation with Ben after the break.
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So after your childhood of being in theatre and working hard and getting through school and all these things, your first big break was pitch perfect. How did it feel to be known as the fact about a guy? Weird. I didn't expect that that would be the first vibe for me. I was on such a particular musical theater path. Pitch Perfect has some flavors of musical theater for sure. I didn't think it would be a film. I didn't think it would be playing up until that point.
I hadn't really played nerdy and introspective weird guys. Then I ended up playing four or five of them in a row, which I guess was always the plan. But when we went to film it and there was a rehearsal process and there was a musical number, I felt safe because I was familiar to me. I was the only one who was actually other than some of the kids who were filling out the rest of the guys group. In terms of the actors in it, Skylar and Anna and Rebel. I was the only one who was actually a
college freshman. It was my college experience essentially because we went and shot at LSU in Louisiana and lived in a homewood suite together. I felt like it was such a deer and headlights kind of thing. It was really joyful experience, really fun. Were there any stories from behind the scenes that you haven't told? I dated one of the guys in the group the whole time. I'll let him remain anonymous. He was one of the troublemakers, the unnamed troublemakers.
I'm with those beautifuls you had a romance. Yes, but he was in the closet. It was my first experience with dating somebody who was fully hidden. He made me keep it a secret and he made me tell my family that he was my friend. It wasn't that great of an experience, but... Has he freed himself now? Oh my god, yes. Immediately after we woke up, he started dating someone and they've been together for a decade. That's good. I was the gateway.
You learned him out the closet? Yes, I was the bridge that he sort of trampled on to get to his openness. But I'm thrilled for them, really honestly. I said it was my college experience, so it's like I got the whole thing of the secret romance and the tears and the voice mails and the secret gifts to each other and telling our one or two cast members that we trust what was happening. It was very sweet. That's a beautiful thing. Only a little bit traumatic, but only in a
good growing way. In an inspirational way, right? In a way of like I'm going to focus on people who are happy with who they are and don't make me want to feel any kind of shame. But I'm thrilled that he doesn't anymore. It makes me happy whenever I hear about people who experienced queer love younger, because I was so hungry for that in school. I wish I had like a boyfriend than like 13, 14. What was your first boyfriend? My first boyfriend, I'd say my first proper
boyfriend was 21. Oh wow, yeah. That's a little bit older. How old were you when you put out leave your lover? Oh, I was 21, 2021. Because people sort of received that as a coming out, right? Yeah. Well, people thought that I, it was about heartbreak of someone that I'd been with. But I was actually in love with a man who was married and he was straight. And we didn't physically do anything with each other. So that whole album was about unrequited love,
about loving someone from afar. Even though I wasn't crazy, I'm not like a stalker. No, no, but we love you. I mean, I just put the song on Andrew that's about the same about that fucking thing where there's a straight man and there's nothing you can do about it. Oh my God, it's so beautiful. The chemicals working against you. He loved me a little bit too. So it was it was it was like, I think he did. So it was like two sided, but leave your lover was about that.
And when I was like 24 though, 25, I went with my boyfriend at the time to see you in Evan Hansen. I remember. And he took me to the show and I had no idea what was going to be and then watch the performance and just was honestly speechless at your power. It was quite an incredible thing to witness, but I am I loved that performance and fuck the pressure you must have felt during that show. It must have been so insane. This is like six, seven times a week. Like your eight,
eight, eight times a week and you're so young. And I just don't know how you dealt with that. I think it's just so incredible. How did you deal with it, Ben? Oh, you know, I don't I feel like such a different honestly, such a different person now than I was. I mean, I know it was only six or something years ago, but I'll start like by saying this. I think that like that particular
show just required that I just give my whole life only to that. It was Evan Hansen and nothing else because it was the kind of part where just every you're eating and you're sleeping and you're the you can't go socialize and you're doing physical therapy and voice lesson. Like just everything has to be about re-recreating it eight times a week and consistently and the show
kind of centers around this kid. So it was just really a lot of pressure for that age. And so I think there's only a certain amount of that I could really take in at that young of an age or really like fully understand and process. So I think my response was just to like put my nose to the grindstone and just like like just work my ass off. So there was a sacrifice in a way to playing a role like that where you had to let go of your personal life and your growth as a person,
a queer person. And yeah, I think like and really just focusing on the emotional and mental life of this other person, which is like wonderful and a character that's like such a dream to play as an actor because you get to do so much. But you know, I'm already anxious so to play somebody who's even more hyper anxious and dealing with like self-hatred and all these things that like aren't necessarily me, but that I have like dispositions for that I, you know, I'm having to spend
time with all the time. It just wasn't let sustainable. So that's why when I finally got out of it, I was so anxious to write my own music and sing as myself because I was like, I can't wait to get back in touch with my own mind and story. So it's mad. I sang for the Dear Evan Hansen movie. I know you did afterwards with Samoal Karan, a song. And I love that film. But people had strong opinions about that film. And after coming off of like a run of fabulous opinions, how did that
film? Did it hit you? Did you have an ego death? Yes. It was horrible. I mean, it was, it was, I needed the bubble to pop in one way or another. As you said, I think it's important like for everyone who's trying to be an artist to have the valleys. And, you know, I mean, like, and I was on like a really solid, linear trajectory. And I just hadn't had an experience of something really not landing. And so because it was this thing that had taken so many years of my life and
been so formative. And I had really felt like I threw myself into it. I didn't even really want to return to it. I felt scared to return to it. But I felt because of what I had seen the story do for so many young people that it was worth it to have a version that would live forever. And for young people to be able to watch that story. So I went and kind of jumped back into that hole. So it was just hard for that to be the thing that like was the misfire in terms of the way it was
received. But, you know, I think I, everyone's entitled to what they feel about it. I like, I, you know, if I like was not in high school anymore. And like people did not enjoy that I was old and playing a teenager. And I think sometimes people don't take issue with that. And sometimes they do. And, you know, this was a scenario in which people seem to really not buy it. And like,
I think it's, you know what? That was not for them. But it is an important in a way. I'm kind of happy that you went through something like that because I think for me, like it's so important to to experience weather as an artist. For sure. And especially if you don't, I mean, it does,
there's no way to really ensure that you love what you're doing. If you're only loving it when it's being received well and when it's when the returns are a certain way, it's like, I feel like it was the first thing that made me really step back and think like, am I certain I want to continue doing this and go down this path and put myself up for critique like this and like, do I love this all enough for that? And of course, the answer it was yes. But it's really important
to have to question that, I think. It gave me like a sort of a freedom to like refocus on what my joy is and like what something like, how do I chase the things that are going to make it me remember why I love doing this? Talking about film though, I watched it to camp. I'm late to the party. Okay. I watched it last week. Oh my God. You did. It's fucking incredible. Oh, thanks for watching. It's incredible. It's so funny. It's honestly such a joy to watch. It
took me back to me being a kid, but it was incredible. It's such an amazing film. So to come back off of of something that was was hard to put out and then to bring out moving like that, it's insane. It's insane. Thanks for watching it. Was it as much of a joy to make as it was to watch? Yes. I mean, it was scary in the good way because it was me and Noah, my partner and our friends Molly and Nick, you know, who we've been working together since we were kids. Noah has to do drag one
day. Isn't he gorgeous? Stunning. Yeah, I know. I want to know what is attractive. On the day on set and he was walking around, he came out of here and makeup and he was just walking around, everyone was like, where's Noah? Who's this love? Who's this gorgeous woman? But it was like, scary because it was the first time where we were like, we were the grown-ups on set because we
produced it and we wrote it and Molly and Nick directed it. So like we were the ones who had to have the answers and have it all together and push the movie up the hill and convince studios to, you know, give us some money to make a movie that was like, had improvised with children and
musical and like it was just like a wild thing to try to do. But it was so joyful. I mean, it was like, we cast so many friends in it who we just think are so funny and we so many amazing talented children that we found and tried to give them like a really beautiful camp experience and it was like, you know, bootstraps like, you know, everybody's showing up and just working for pennies because we believed in it and thought that it was great and why are thick? I'm such a formidable experience.
I mean, especially for queer people, but any kid, I mean, I think somewhere where vulnerability and emotional honesty and sensitivity are the things that A, connect everyone and
make you like, that connect the community and B, like those are the cool things. Like that's what's held in high esteem is somebody who can like connect to themselves and put themselves out there and like B, a clown or B, vulnerable or like that, that that's the thing that makes you popular in a space like that is such an amazing place for a kid to be because it's like, that's exactly
this. Regardless of whether you ever step foot on a stage again when you're an adult or have any interest in becoming a performer, I think spending time in communities like that is so important. So that's where all the vulnerable like people who are strange and kind, like that's where they all are. But my dream one day is to obviously teach at Endor start a theater camp. You have to. Must. Stay tuned for more of my conversation with Ben.
This show is brought to you by HopeLab. Social media can be a double-edged sort for teens and young adults. While it offers emotional support in the sense of community, it can also bring stress and anxiety. HopeLab's research shows young people aged 14 to 22 have varied experiences online, especially for the LGBTQ plus community and youth of color. While they are more likely to encounter harmful content on social media, LGBTQ plus, black and Latinx young people are also more likely
to protect themselves by using feed curation tools or to seek balance by taking breaks. Many conversations about social media and young people focus only on the harm to their mental health, depicting young users as passive consumers. This research shows that it's actually more complex. Teens and young adults bring their own unique lived experiences to social media spaces and have different experiences with the content and communities they find there.
That's why HopeLab advocates for more research, like this study, which was co-created directly with young people. If we want to improve the mental health of young people, we need to listen to their experiences, especially as they navigate these complex topics. To learn more about the research, go to HopeLab.org. That's HopeLab.org. When I heard the title of your new album, Honey Mind, I got massive jealousy because I was
like, that is such a beautiful title. It's such a beautiful title, Ben. Can you explain, please, to the listeners what brought that title into real life? Thanks. I was on a hike with Noah with my partner. Right around the time when I was starting to write the album, and we ate some mushroom chocolate as one does. We were just enjoying nature and the
world and each other. I was in a giddy, joyful, very calm space. He was really noticing that, because again, as I've said, multiple times, I can be very anxious and worried about things. We were just investigating it the way you do when you're on a hike in nature, taking mushrooms, and talking about the way that we feel about each other, and talking about the freedom that that affords me as a person knowing that I have him in my corner. I started to talk about
the inside of my mind and what I imagine that it looks like. I started envisioning the way that stress and anxiety and all these things create these jagged edges and all these things that are in the way of each other and crowding, and just the way that your mind can sometimes feel. Then I imagined the effect that love has on our minds, and it doesn't necessarily make any of those things go away, or they don't disappear as these two exist, but they do become easier to handle.
So I just imagined them getting coated in something warmer and sweeter, and a little softer, and easier, and just make it all a little easier to take. So I just thought about honey and this gold stuff in my head, and it came out as honey mine, and we started talking about that as a phrase, and he was like, that's a beautiful phrase. You should write a song called Honey Mind. It's such a beautiful word. It really is. It's such a common listen to the music, of course.
And next year I'm launching a full line of honey. You said, I know so I love, do you take mushrooms regularly? Does it help with your anxiety? Yes, I mean, not regularly in the sense of like, I know there are people that like microdose like every day of their lives, which is beautiful, but it has to be a once-in-a-while thing for me when I have no responsibilities, and it's a day or two of total freedom, and I don't have
to be beholden to anything, and then I can really enjoy it. Otherwise, I get too nervous about being someone calls and have to be a person, and you have to worry about it. I think people freak out when they hear about it, because of the, I don't know, when I was younger, I thought the magic mushrooms were like as intense as ecstasy. Yeah, no, no, no. But when done right in the right setting, like you say. Right doses, right setting. Right doses, right setting.
Something in your tummy first before you eat them. All these things. It makes you feel so present and happy, and just like, it takes away a lot of unproductive thinking, which is why I think some of people live whole lifestyles where they microdose for their whole lives. It's so beautiful. And also, this album title and this album capturing love is, I thought it was going to be the heart. For me, it was always the hardest thing.
Misery, for me, is a songwriter, was a really fabulous place to go to, and I would always be inspired by miserable things. When I was younger, if someone broke up with me, it was a twat to me or a dickhead, I would love it. I wouldn't love it, but musically, I love it. That's food for the song. Thank you for giving me inspiration to, you know, with ease, write this music. And it's a whole different thing. And when it happens, writing about love is
actually really easy and beautiful and healing. And it's also so important to capture that as a queer person, as a gay man, talking about love in a gay relationship, in the way that you are going to and have. It's so powerful and beautiful. Queer joy is, to me, the most powerful thing, because there wasn't a lot of it for me growing up. You know, there's all these movies about trauma and sadness and our history, which can be dark. And it's just such a powerful thing to put into the
world talking about your love for now. It's amazing. Thanks. Now, with you making honey-minded in the studio, do you feel super comfortable writing your records now? Totally. I think anytime there's a very clear artistic task at hand to focus on, that's the best possible antidote, because it's just so fulfilling to focus on it, not just as a distraction, but it's also such a
nice catharsis to like process things and like emotions you haven't made peace with or experiences, you haven't made peace with or you know, even on the positive side, just like as you're saying, love you want to write about or happiness you want to write about it just feels so satisfying to express it in a way that you feel good about or that that feels specific to you. So yes, I've always very, very much a happy place similar to the stage is like going singing and recording.
I've got last question for you. What advice do you have for young queer kids who have had, who have a lot of noise in their mind? What advice do you have for people who are struggling with anxiety?
Well, for queer people in general are listening, young queer people. I would say, you know, there's a lot of emphasis because of a lot of, you know, shitty people that exist and a lot of mistakes that the country has made, etc. on fighting for our rights and fighting for to prove our humanity and for equality and for things that are very
just trying to still get our seat at the table in certain ways. And I think A, you know, those are very important things and I'm glad that we're all on the team together to try to make them happen. But you're young people and you deserve to also just brag about how special you are and like sometimes more often than not, like, queerness makes you even
better. Like there's a superpower that comes with it and whether that's, I don't, it manifests in different ways for everybody, whether that's, you know, your sense of style or your sense of humor or your worldview or your, you know, the way you dress or whatever it might be or your friends
that you have or the way you interact with your family or the types of books that makes you love or whatever it is, like, like find the time to and find the people where you can just brag about that stuff and really enjoy how like you're part of not only a club that needs to be proving that
they're an equal club, but that in many ways is a, is a special even better club and like, just really live in that power and it's a, it's a special thing to be part of and like, if you don't have those people around you now, like, they are so here and they're, they are somewhere waiting for you and I have so much faith that no matter who you are, like, those people are, are there.
That's beautiful. Do you have any advice, like physical advice with anxiety because I find with mind it's, you know, sometimes I just needed a glass of water or like taking the cold shower, like, do you have any physical advice that you've picked up along your way for people? Yes. I can only speak from the way that my anxiety manifests and what I do for myself, I think
I'm probably feels different in everybody's bodies. Walking around is huge. Like, I sometimes, if I get anxious, convinced myself, mine often manifests in like, shortness of breath or feeling like, like, tightness in my chest or that I'm overwhelmed that I need to lay down and be still.
And that's often the worst thing for me. So if I can manage to just get myself moving around, walk around the block, put on music, even just walk around the house with Noah, call a friend and have them just tell you about their day, something distracting while you just slowly move around, just keeping yourself gently, slowly moving is really good for regulating everything and
also just reminding yourself in a very literal way. Like, I'm chill, like, I'm fine, I'm walking and moving and if something were really happening to me, like, I would not be able to stand and walk and move and be okay. And I think that's really nice and helpful. Grounding. Grounding. Very grounding. And also, I sometimes get shivery when I get anxious and so I like to, you know, you put on a
sweatshirt, put on a blanket, get cozy. Yeah. And then put on your favorite music and just take a little stroll around even if you feel like, do a little slow dancing around and just remind yourself, like, you're in control of your body and that, like, you know, everything will pass this, this too shall pass, as they say. Thank you. Ben, thank you so much for being with us today and being with me. You are honestly, you're such an amazing person. You're such a lighthouse of a person
you really are. You'd like to see him. I mean, I love every time I'm with you, I love being with you and thank you for taking this time and keep doing what you're doing. Keep living loudly and bravely and courageously and then singing your heart out like you do because it's an honor to watch. Thanks, Ian. Pleasure. I love Ben's perspective. Queerness makes us remarkable. We all deserve to celebrate how special
we are. And yes, of course, sometimes it's not easy to do. Sometimes our nerves and our anxious minds get the best of us and it can manifest in all types of ways into feelings of uneasiness in our bodies. So today, I want to take you into the pincus. We're going to use Ben's advice and we're going to take a little walk. We're going to roam through the rooms. We're going to walk through the kitchen, smell our families cooking. My mum's cooking was always the best. Walk through the living
room. Walk through the play room. Even walk outside if you want. Take a walk in the garden. Put on some calming music, if you're like in your headphones and just stroll around. Don't think about where you're headed. Just keep moving and observing. Fill your feet on the ground. Take a few deep breaths in. And out. Thank you so much for visiting me in the pincus today. And thank you to my guest and my friend Ben Platt.
There's more of the pincus with Lemonada Premium. Subscribers get exclusive access to premium content with more stories and funny tidbits from the queer icons you hear on this show. Subscribe now in Apple podcasts. The Pincus is a Lemonada original. I'm your host Sam Smith. Our producers are Claire Jones and Rachel Leitner. Izzara Acevese is our associate producer. Kristen LePore is our senior supervising producer. Mix and sound designed by Rachel Leitner
and Ivan Karayev. Editing by Jackie Danziger our vice president of narrative content. Executive producers include me Sam Smith, Stephanie Whittles-Wax and Jessica Cordova Kramer. Production support from method music, cherry create and Jessica Mayer Jones. Original music by APM. A special thanks to Bill Sigmund and Nevean at Digital Island Studios in New York City. Help others find our show by leaving us a rating and writing a review.
Follow the pincus wherever you get your podcasts or listen ad-free on Amazon Music with your prime membership. In addition to this podcast, I'm in the process of establishing the pincus as a charitable foundation. Named after the home I grew up in, the pincus charity is intended to provide support for people within the LGBTQIA plus community. The pincus is about building a better, safer world for all of us. I can't wait to share more with you. Thank you so much for
listening. See you next week. Bye.