Mentor Buffet

In the second episode of Mentor Buffet, Zach Braff shares with host Alexi Pappas about his relationship with his mentor Bill Lawrence, the creator of Scrubs and Ted Lasso. Bill is the first person to give Zach a big Hollywood chance and he cast him as the lead of his show Scrubs as the iconic J.D. Dorian. They also discuss what it means to be yourself, what Zach learned making his debut feature film Garden State, the importance of gratitude, and how to avoid shin splints.

In the premiere episode of Mentor Buffet, host Alexi Pappas talks to Rainn Wilson about his acting journey and how his mentors—three acting professors he met in school at NYU—taught him lessons that have stuck with him his entire career. Rainn shares about how Zelda Fichandler, the grande dame of American theater, shaped his definition of an actor, how Paul Walker taught him to assume he’s brilliant to build longstanding confidence, and how Ron Van Lieu helped him get out of his own way. Rainn and Alexi also discuss the importance of resilience, the value of being of service to others, and how to stay on your own team. Subscribe to Mentor Buffet anywhere you listen to podcasts for a new episode every Thursday.

Alexi Pappas's Mentor Buffet is a podcast about mentorship: Who influenced the people who influence us? Who helped them along their journey? Alexi is an Olympian, filmmaker, actress, and bestselling author, and she's leaned on mentors to help her level up faster than she could on her own. After losing her mom to suicide when she was four, she needed to find other people to lean on. Now, it's Alexi's turn to peel back the curtain on mentorship. In each episode of Mentor Buffet Alexi sits down with people who inspire her—athletes, entrepreneurs, creatives, and beyond—to have conversations about chasing dreams and befriending pain, through the lens of those who have shaped them into who they are today.