I'm Linda Holms and I'm Stephen Thompson. There's more stuff to watch and read these days than any one person can get to.

That's why we make pop culture happy hour.

Twice a week we sort through the nonsense, share reactions and give you the lowdown on what's worth your precious time and what's not.

Find pop culture happy hour on the NPR-1 app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey y'all, from NPR, I'm Sam Sanders. It's been a minute.

We're taking this on Monday, October 2nd, a day when we all woke up to the news from Las Vegas.

We are thinking of everyone there, everyone dealing with this tragedy, and we'll process the week's events and those events in Vegas in our Friday episode.

But today's deep dive, it's really timely. We talk about some big thoughts about life, about choosing to find joy in life, and about knowing that life could end at any time.

But before we start, I want you to stop right now in Google 3 words. The three words are John Carroll Lynch.

You know this guy. Even if you think you don't, you do.

John Carroll Lynch is one of the most recognizable character actors working in Hollywood today. And he just directed his first film. It's called Lucky.

It stars one of the great characters of all time, the late Harry Dean Stanton. The film is actually based on Stanton's life.

If you don't know Harry Dean, he's a very interesting guy. He got into acting in the late 50s after he served in World War 2.

And he died just this year at the age of 91. And this film is one of the last things he made. That alone is enough for a really good chat.

But John Carroll Lynch and I talked about so much more. We talked about his work. We talked about acting as a craft.

We talked about being a character actor. We talked about what even that means, and how he gets into the mind of the characters he plays.

He's got some really amazing stories, and he was really, really fun to talk to.

So let's not waste any more time. Here's my conversation with John Carroll Lynch. John was in LA. I was in DC. Enjoy.

Hey there. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I'm saying nice to meet you, John.

Nice to meet you, Sam. You have a terrific radio voice. Well, look at you. You're checks in the mail. Thank you for that.

You're welcome. I'll text you my address. So it doesn't get lost.

I've been geeked out about talking to you for a few weeks now, and I've been telling my friends, hey, I'm talking to John Carroll Lynch, this actor you know.

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