Monsters Inc. Up, Inside Out, and Soul. All four of these movies, critically claimed box office smashes, are the brainchild of Pete Doctor.

Fresh out of college, you took a job as an animator at a small, struggling firm that built computer hardware and made TV commercials.

30 years later, that same firm Pixar is one of the most successful film studios on the

planet, and Pete Doctor is its chief creative officer.

Welcome to people I mostly admire with Steve Levitt.

Pete Doctor already has two Academy Awards, and he's nominated for another this year for directing

the movie Soul. How does a mild-mannered Minnesota boy rise to the pinnacle of the film industry?

I have no idea. I'm also a mild-mannered Minnesota boy, almost the exact same age as Pete Doctor,

and it's really hard for me to imagine how he pulled it off. And I have to say, I'm a little bit jealous.

Pete, Doctor, it is an absolute joy to get to talk with you today. I've got six kids, and I suspect I've spent more time watching your movies than just about anyone else. Thanks for being here.

It's a pleasure to be here. Man, I'm sorry. Six kids is a lot of kids. I started over, which is a really unique situation where I've got four teenagers and two toddlers.

So I'm one of those rare people who gets the second chance to do better than I did the first time.

Is it different the second time? You feel like I'm a different parent?

You know, I really expected to feel very different, and I thought that I would be so much better.

But the reality is I was so sleep deprived the first time through. I can't remember any of the lessons I was supposed to have learned. I think I'm just repeating almost all the same mistakes, unfortunately. Well, that's the thing I would think I'd be maybe more relaxed or go like, oh, yeah, they're not dead or on fire, so it's okay. So I was pretty relaxed the first time around. Okay, maybe that's not a good idea then.

But I will say the thing that's different is I did worry about would they learn how to read and write and do math.

And this time around, I realize every kid learns how to read and write and do math.

The two things I don't think every kid learns how to do

is number one be happy and content. And the other one is to have ideas and to be creative. So that's

really been my focus is how to create a really loving environment where that safety allows them

to explore on their own. I guess that might be the difference in how I did it.

So you had two kids and they've grown up. Would you do anything differently if you started over?

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