JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Every week, a famous guest draws a card from the Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. At age 77, Ted Danson seems just as productive now as he was in his days on "Cheers." He currently stars in the Netflix show "A Man On The Inside," and he hosts a hit podcast called "Where Everybody Knows Your Name." He reflected on aging with Wild Card host Rachel Martin.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
RACHEL MARTIN: How often do you think about death?
TED DANSON: Ooh, a lot. I - see, I flip - my brain, I've trained it, and I like it. And it may not be real, but my brain immediately tries to contextualize and spin myself away from fear. I don't like living in fear. And I have tons of it, you know? It comes up. I had so much fun doing a classic spy that halfway through it, I went - I was going, oh, don't die. Let me finish this...
MARTIN: Really? To yourself, that's what you were saying?
DANSON: Yeah. But - and then I go, wait a minute. What you're really saying is, you are so happy to be doing what you're doing, don't take it away from me, life, you know? So instead of being fearful, just say, oh, my God, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for this blessing that I have - 'cause then I can live in gratitude, which is more joyful, and I don't have to live in fear.
MARTIN: So I have a - I guess I have another question related to this because you did - you have talked publicly about suffering from plaque psoriasis for a long time.
DANSON: Right.
MARTIN: And I wonder if that experience made you think differently about your body and your own kind of physical fragility.
DANSON: Oh, definitely. And I can never look at myself in the mirror. I have - you know, I was born without a chest muscle. I was 6' at 13 and weighed 120 pounds. And then when I was 25, I got psoriasis. I was never able to go, you know, oh, what a glorious creature you are in your Speedo. So I think it made me - I think self-deprecating humor came out of that. My mother also was - you know, was very - she dealt wonderfully with the light things of life. When things were dark, which life has, she had trouble with that. So there were things like - phrases like pride goeth before a fall, you know, that kind of stuck in my head. And so it's like being prideful, even though I am, it was something that I tried not to be 'cause I didn't want the fall. Even having a conversation with you today, where we're - I'm kind of forcing it to be on the higher level of the joy meter because that's what I like to...
MARTIN: It's where you like to live. Yeah.
DANSON: ...Hear back...
MARTIN: I get it.
DANSON: ...You know? But I am also very aware that I will step out of here and directly into a pile of karmic poo because that's just...
MARTIN: (Laughter).
DANSON: ...The way life works. Mr. Ted, who thinks he's so wonderful, Danson, you know, will get a reflection of the truth.
(LAUGHTER)
DANSON: But that's fun. That's funny.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SUMMERS: You can hear more of that conversation with Ted Danson on the Wild Card podcast.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR鈥檚 programming is the audio record.