Ben Stiller on the Price of Fame and the Power of Failure

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway

Vox Media Podcast Network

Careers, Entrepreneurship, Business

4.6 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Scott speaks with Ben Stiller, actor, director, and executive producer of the hit series Severance, to discuss the highs and lows of a four-decade career in Hollywood. They talk about growing up in a showbiz family, the lessons hidden in failure, and the creative risks that paid off. Ben also opens up about sobriety, balancing ambition with family, and why Severance almost didn’t get made. Follow Ben Stiller, @BenStiller. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Ava from Vanta.
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0:32.5	People didn't used to have jobs. Jobs only came about because... All right, hold on. You're losing
0:37.2	me. What does this
0:37.8	have to do with being weird? I'm making jobs strange. So most people wake up thinking, you have to have a job.
0:44.4	Jobs have always been here. What I'm saying is, what is a job? Who invented jobs? Who do they favor? Why do we
0:54.0	have this system? And is there another one?
0:57.6	Can you think of another one? That's this week on the gray area. New episodes every Monday,
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1:07.7	Episode 360.36O is the area code serving Western Washington.
1:11.6	In 1960, the FDA approved the first birth control pill.
1:15.6	True story.
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	...

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